Fact Sheet

There are an estimated 77 million kids online today.

There are more than 40,000 chat rooms where children can meet child predators.

Pedophiles lure kids in with games, establish relationships with them on-line, then arrange to meet face-to-face.

75 percent of children are willing to share personal information online about themselves and their family in exchange for goods and/or services. (gifts, free samples, free online games, etc.)

Chat rooms and instant/private messages are two main tools pedophiles use to contact children on-line.

Online child pornography/child sex exploitation is the most significant crime problem confronting the FBI that involves crimes against children.

There is a 100% chance of a child meeting a predator in a chat room. (FBI 2002)

Children are reported missing into the FBI computer program system at the rate of:

  •  825,600 kids per year
  •  68,800 kids per month
  •  16,100 kids per week
  •  2,300 kids per day
  •  96 kids per hour
  •  3 kids every 2 minutes

*Statistics provided by the Crimes Against Children Research Center 1/2003


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