The team's Internet investigative techniques are in the spotlight following last Thursday's arrest of Web luminary Patrick Naughton, 34, on charges of soliciting sex from an FBI agent posing in an online chat room as a 13-year-old girl. After spending the night in jail, the Infoseek executive vice president was released on US$100,000 bail.
The case joined more than 400 others that have been prosecuted since the start of the FBI's "Innocent Images" investigation in 1995. More than 80 percent of those cases have resulted in convictions, according to the FBI.
"We don't go out there and roam through the various chat rooms," said Aden. "We don't have enough manpower to do that."
"It's not just us and the offenders," said Aden. "Most of the ones we pick up have already contacted real children and may (have committed a crime) by seducing them for sex."
Started in July of 1995, the Los Angeles SAFE team consists of members of the FBI, the LA Sheriff's Dept., the LA Police Department, the Department of Corrections, the California Department of Justice and the State District Attorney's Office. Other teams like it are being assembled in other major metropolitan areas nationwide.
"(The Naughton) case is an example in how basic ingenuity has allowed the FBI to investigate digital crimes with good old techniques," said Jennifer Granick, a San Francisco attorney who has frequently defended those accused of cyber crimes, most notably ex-hacker Kevin Poulsen.
Still, the biggest difference between the electronic and the physical world is the size of the beat, said the FBI's Aden.
"In the past, the offender committed the crime within his own community," he said. "With the Internet, the offender can travel to another part of the country to offend." That makes it harder to find out who is lurking behind an online name.
Whether it's the false perception of online anonymity or that ability to strike at a distance, more criminal activity occurs online every year, said Aden. "As the PC becomes more accessible to the general populace, we are seeing an increasing number of these sorts of crimes," he said.
Others think that trend will likely continue. "It certainly seems like criminals are the first to see the potential of a new technology," said attorney Grannick. "There was a time when only call girls had answering machines and drug dealers had pagers."
"The same thing is happening with the Internet."
Instead, the SAFE agents target chat rooms known to attract pedophiles, like the #0!!!!!!!!dad&daughtersex.log where "hotseattle" -- allegedly Naughton's chat room name -- contacted the agents. The agents also investigate complaints from more innocent chat rooms where teenagers gather.
