Iowa Department of Human Services director, Charles Krogmeier says a report on child abuse in the state shows a step backwards. Krogmeier says the number of cases reported and confirmed cases had been trending down the last couple of years, but both reports and confirmed cases of child abuse went up 11% in the numbers from 2009. Krogmeier says there doesn’t appear to be any particular trend in the individual cases.

He says the overall percentages for each type of cases has remained about the same, with a lot of the cases involving neglect, such as not feeding a child properly. Krogmeier says case of physical and sexual abuse were a “relatively small part of the numbers.” The state investigated 25,814 reports of child abuse or neglect in 2009 and about two-thirds of the investigations showed that no abuse had occurred.

Krogmeier says the tough economic times are likely behind the increase in abuse cases. “The only thing that I think we can really point to, is the economic stress that families are under is probably spilling over into some additional instances of child neglect and child abuse that are being reported to us,” Krogmeier says.

READ MORE:  http://www.radioiowa.com/2010/03/04/dhs-says-child-abuse-cases-increased-in-2009/

SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris Tuesday announced new legislation that would make it illegal for registered sex offenders in California to use social networking Web sites. The legislation, sponsored by Harris and authored by Assemblywoman Norma Torres, D-Pomona, calls for registered sex offenders who violate the new law to face jail time as a result.

“Registered sex offenders using social networking sites is criminal behavior,” Harris said in a statement. “It’s time we made it a crime.” She said children and youth use social networking Web sites, such as Facebook and MySpace, as a “playground” and they should be protected from sexual predators.

“When our children are on the Internet, it’s like opening the front door of our home,” Harris said. “We must shut that door to sex offenders.”

READ MORE:  http://www.ktvu.com/news/22722713/detail.html?taf=fran

Profiles Of A Predator: Teacher Michael Thomas Wilson

A 25-year-old substitute teacher from Indiana has been arrested by Federal Agents after he allegedly amassed over 90,000 pictures and videos of children engaged in sexual activity.

Yes, boys & girls that’s 90,000…

Michael Thomas Wilson, 26, of Valparasio, first came to the attention of investigators after they identified his username, “Wilson49332“, to an individual who had been previously been convicted in 2007 on child pornography charges.

According to the Post-Tribune, the unidentified convicted man maintained a web account with the now defunct Google operated website, “Hello“, which at the time allowed people to share various files with other online users.

One of the screen names on the site was the aforementioned “Wilson49332”, which investigators eventually traced back to the Valparaiso University graduate student.

After detectives paid a visit to his Indiana home they reportedly discovered thousands and thousands of files containing child pornography, some including images of a baby only a mere 4-months-old.

Besides being an active substitute teacher and overseeing numerous children in the states of Colorado, Indiana and Kentucky, Wilson also maintained an interest in autistic kids as is evident from his LinkedIn account.

On it, Wilson list the following as just some of his rather impressive credentials:

“Working with children and young adults (ages 6-26) diagnosed with Autism having a developmental disability in creating Individual Support Plans.
Tracking and creating community and daily living goals.
Creating daily educational activities and ensuring client safety.
Provide in home habilitation services in absence of parent/gaurdians.”

The single twentysomething also states that he worked as a band teacher while living in the state of Kentucky.

Also included in his massive resume, found as well on his personal site here, Wilson claims to be the program administrator and webmaster of blessinginabackpack.com, a site that is “designed to help meet the nutritional needs of children and families.”