ALBEMARLE COUNTY, Va. (WVIR) – Detectives investigating internet crimes against children in Albemarle County say their caseload is growing as social media and artificial intelligence make it easier for predators to access children online.
The department’s cybercrimes unit has made at least four arrests since the spring.
“We’ve been working these cases for a while and it does seem like a lot at once but it’s the culmination of months of work,” said Michael Schneider, a cybercrimes unit detectives.
Schneider and Michael Wells are the two detectives behind Albemarle’s internet crimes against children unit. Their investigations often involve posing as children and messaging online pedophiles.
“We’re playing catch up with some of these guys. We do our best,” Wells said.
Both detectives said the internet keeps making it easier for predators to find children online.
“Technology is always changing, we’re always getting better at catching them,” Wells said.
Schneider said artificial intelligence makes tricking victims easier.
“You have ChatGPT, Grok all these different platforms and it’s making it so that these predators are able to go on there try to make images of themselves look younger, so they can now target these kids as younger people,” Schneider said.
Most of the tips they investigate come from internet companies, which they rely on for evidence.
“A lot of times it can rely on how fast they get back to us. Sometimes they can take weeks and be really quick, you get all the evidence you need, sometimes it can take months,” Schneider said.
Wells and Schneider said whether the person they are investigating is down the road or across the state, they try to work fast because these internet predators may have real life victims.
“Maybe 20 to 25 percent of people who are online have done this in, that we can attest to, like hands on offenses,” Wells said.
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