Bedford County targets child predators in cyberspace

Operation Blue Ridge Thunder has made innovative use of computers to crack down on those who traffic on child porn.

    SOME of the most dangerous criminals in the world are hiding behind their personal computers, shamelessly using technology to sexually exploit children -- and smirking because the odds are good that law-enforcement authorities, with limited manpower and resources, can't stop them.

   But as the Bedford County Sheriff's Department has shown, it doesn't take all the resources of the FBI.  The same technology that allows pedophiles, child molesters and purveyors of child pornography to reach out and grab children can also be used by law-enforcement authorities to collar these criminals and bring them to justice.

   On Sept. 30, Bedford County Sheriff Mike Brown and several of his law-enforcement officers will travel to Washington to brief Congress on how their Operation Blue Ridge Thunder has been rounding up and convicting pedophiles and others who prey on children in cyberspace.

   For nearly two years, and with financial assistance in recent months from a $200,000 U.S. Department of Justice grant, the bedford officials have been going after child predators around the country the same way predators go after their victims and spread their smut -- online.

   With the high-profile appearance before Congress, Operation Blue Ridge Thunder could become a model for law-enforcement agencies throughout the country to target this despicable sex trade, said to involve more than 10,000 web sites and more than 300,000 children.  beyond any doubt, a crackdown by law enforcement is needed.  Such illegal activity is increasing at a rapipd pace, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and is threatening children in virtually every community.

   As Brown wisely recognizes, just as more effective law-enforcement programs are needed to combat the problem, so, too, are effective education programs to help children learn to protect themselves from e-predators.  His office, for instance, is providing a "safe surfin' " program for all fourth- [through] seventh-grade students.

   The sheriff and his deputies are to be commended for vigorously going after those who would so abuse and misuse both children and technological advances.