EXCLUSIVE: Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office Seeing Disturbing Rise In Children Being Targeted For Abuse Online
WOODBURY, N.J. (CBS) -- A local prosecutor's office says it's seeing a disturbing rise in reports of children being targeted for abuse.
There's been a significant increase in the number of referrals for child abuse and neglect. As a result, the people at the Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office's Special Victims Unit have had to hire more staff to manage the workload.
The troubling trend at the Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office's Special Victims Unit is keeping detectives extra busy.
"When you looked at the actual numbers, it was kind of astonishing that it had gone up that much," Lt. Stacie Lick said.
Lick is a supervisor at the department. She says in 2020, there were 304 referrals for child abuse or neglect. In 2021, there were 414.
"Once they recognized there was an increase of numbers, we added an additional detective," she said. "We have a Spanish-speaking detective as well. We had a clerk that was assigned and then we added a victim advocate that is here full-time."
She attributes the uptick in referrals to the pandemic, which has forced schools to implement virtual learning, meaning kids are spending more time behind the computer.
She says strangers are soliciting kids to send nude pictures of themselves through social media apps like Kik, Snapchat, and Instagram. They're even reaching out to kids through the chat function on video games like Fortnite and Roblox.
"They sometimes bribe the children to send photos with gaming tokens or gaming money," Lick said.
Lick's office is creating educational videos to be played in schools so kids can learn how to be safe online.
"If I can give any advice to the parents, it's really know what your kids are doing, know who they are communicating with, and really educating them," she said.
Right now, the Special Victims Unit is housed on Cooper Street, but soon they're moving to a much bigger office in a building that's under construction on Glover Street about a mile away.
Lick says she's hoping the move will take place by the end of the year.