The Information Age provides endless hiding places for even the most brazen criminals. But it also can be used against them, making attempts to hide futile.
Last week, once again, the world witnessed what can happen when police everywhere release a photo of a person and ask for help in locating him. This time, it took two days. A man accused of disgusting sex crimes against young boys was found in a small town in New Jersey, and he's now behind bars.
If not for the Information Age, Wayne Nelson Corliss might never have been arrested. In his Union City, N.J., neighborhood, he was known as the witty guy who liked to paint children's faces and who did a great portrayal of Santa Claus each December. No one suspected him of anything wrong.
In far-off Norway, however, police had a picture. They had found it on a seized computer file. It portrayed a man doing horrible things to boys in Thailand. What they lacked was any identification of the man. For more than two years they searched in vain. Then they decided to publish the photo and ask for help. The Associated Press said Corliss admitted to the crimes in interviews with prosecutors. Authorities found evidence of child pornography on computer hard drives at his apartment.
Last year, a similar international call for help resulted in the arrest of a 32-year-old Canadian man in Thailand.
These arrests, satisfying as they are, merely lead people to wonder how many others have yet to be found. Child pornography is the illegal and universally condemned cousin of the so-called "legitimate" porn industry. By some estimates, this industry grossed $13.1 billion in the United States alone in 2006, making it bigger than all major sports leagues in the United States combined. Child pornography is believed to generate several billion dollars, as well.
The Internet greatly enhances access to images and videos that otherwise would require significant effort to obtain. By some estimates, cases of child-sexual exploitation jumped from about 4,500 in 1998 to about 112,000 in 2004.
Sure, law-abiding people can breathe a tiny bit easier because the Internet led to a suspected pedophile being behind bars. Clearly, however, much more remains to be done. Authorities must find ways to make the Internet unsafe for all people who want to violate children.