Latest news with #childprotection
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Yahoo
Hunlock Twp. man, 70, sentenced for online child solicitation
Jun. 27—WILKES-BARRE — An apology and a pledge to never do it again were not enough to keep a Hunlock Township man from being sentenced to state prison Friday for soliciting sex from a child. Martin Donald Sorber, 70, was sentenced by Luzerne County Judge David W. Lupas to 18 months to four years in state prison on charges of criminal attempt to commit statutory sexual assault, unlawful contact with a minor and resisting arrest. Sorber was also sentenced to four years probation and required to lifetime registration of his address under the state's Sexual Offender Registration and Notification Act. Sorber pleaded guilty to the charges on April 1. Sorber was arrested Sept. 20, 2024, in a joint investigation by Kingston Township police and Wyoming Area Regional Police in an online solicitation sting, according to court records. Court records say Sorber replied to an online post by a law enforcement officer on Sept. 9, 2024. During online conversations, Sorber expressed interest in having sexual relations with the girl, who was an undercover law enforcement officer, court records say. When Sorber arrived at a location believing he was to meet the girl, court records say, he punched an officer in the face when arrested. Sorber was in possession of condoms and lubrication when arrested, court records say. Before being sentenced, Sorber said, "I've never done anything like this before and I won't ever do it again...I'm sorry." Lupas noted Sorber had no criminal record and received a number of letters in Sorber's favor, but said the offense was serious enough to warrant a state prison sentence.
ABC News
9 hours ago
- ABC News
Tasmanian boy left homeless due to child protection department's 'gross negligence', family member says
A 13-year-old boy was left languishing in a homeless shelter for months because of the Tasmanian child protection department's "gross negligence", a family member says. The family member, who cannot be named due to child protection laws, repeatedly urged the department to act, warning the boy was "hanging around a tent city of homeless adults", taking drugs and dealing them. When she found out in August that the child was homeless, and questioned why authorities had not intervened, she said a department worker told her there were only two response staff on in the area. "I understand that your office is grossly understaffed — this is not your fault, but it's also not [the child's]," the family member wrote to the worker. Having worked in the child protection system interstate, she told the ABC that understaffing could lead to "permanent harm". "Those sorts of levels of staffing lead to deaths of children," she said. "It leads to instability because then the workers burn out and they can't provide the correct level of care for these kids. But, ultimately, these kids pay the price, and it changes the path of their life permanently." The department could not tell the ABC how many staff were on in the child's area between August and September, but in the north-west there were 12.7 full-time employees, compared to 16.7 the year before. Across the entire state, the staffing figure for that period was 85.6 on average, down from 102 the previous year. In October, the child's primary worker told the family member the boy was under the department's guardianship as per an interim order, and that a 12-month order was in process. But the boy continued to bounce around the state homeless, with the family member holding "serious concerns" about how his case was being managed. "No disrespect to you…as you have been thrown in the deep end, but [his] case is complex and cannot be effectively managed if you have not met him and there is back and forth between the northwest and the south which further slows things down. It needs to be managed by an experienced team in the south who can physically get out to see [him]," she wrote in an email. The worker said the department was in search of stable accommodation for the child but there had been "some difficulty". "I have followed up with the progress frequently, but the matter sits above me at this point in time, so I am unable to escalate it myself. [His] case has also been requested to transfer south due to that is where he is currently located, but due to the current placement request potentially being state-wide, the case transfer has been put on hold," the worker wrote. Often gone from the shelter for days, the child was seen advertising the sale of drugs online. "It's not acceptable that an at-risk 13-year-old child is being left to his own devices and there isn't a plan in place to return him to placement," the family member wrote to the department. "I'm worried about the path that he is currently on and that it's going to lead to him being further abused or overdosing, in juvenile detention, seriously hurt, or worse." The family member said the department no longer responded to her questions about the child's current situation and that she would make a formal complaint about the handling of his case. The department could not comment on individual matters for legal and privacy reasons. Tasmania's child protection department has been increasingly handling notifications about children in potential risk through pathways other than launching an investigation. Around 75 per cent of notifications for non-Aboriginal children, and more than half for Aboriginal kids, were "dealt with by other means" last financial year, data from a Productivity Commission report shows. It contributed the increase to "a change" in how cases are recorded since the Commission of Inquiry into the Tasmanian Government's Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. "During and following the commission of inquiry there were increases of historical abuse being reported. These notifications were assessed and closed as 'dealt with by other means' under 17 (2)(b), when no current risk to children is identified," the department said. Senior program manager at Anglicare, Marni Bos, said the non-government organisation received referrals from child safety — some that required a higher level of intervention than the organisation could offer. She said across the state, there was a "high demand" for their outreach program for kids with complex needs. The Supported Youth Program provided support, counselling and mediation for children aged 10 to 18 who were in an unstable home, disengaged from education, experiencing substance abuse or struggling socially. "In that program over the last 12 months, we have case managed 135 young people across the north, north-west," Ms Bos said. "We have limited services in the north, north-west, and so that can be a contributing factor [for high demand]." She said greater awareness of their rights among young people, family violence and lack of housing had also contributed to the increase in demand. Interim Children's Commissioner Isabelle Crompton said around 400 children between the ages of 10 to 17 presented to the state's homelessness services each year. "Prevention and early intervention systems have not met the needs of this highly vulnerable group of children whose homelessness relates to a lack of appropriate or safe care," she said. "I know from speaking with children and young people that experiencing homelessness on their own can lead to offending behaviour and further unsafe situations," Ms Crompton said. Youth offences in Tasmania have risen from 3,800 in 2022 to 5,782 last year. Tasmania Police Assistant Commissioner of Operations Adrian Bodnar last month said 57 people were responsible for half of the youth crimes in the state. "It's a small cohort of youths that are creating the bulk of the issues for us in the community," Assistant Commissioner Bodnar said. The state's Liberal and Labor parties have not yet outlined their policies for the child protection sector, ahead of the election next month. Labor spokesperson Sarah Lovell said she was aware the system had been "chronically underfunded and under-resourced for over a decade". "Our commitment is to deliver a properly resourced, responsive, and accountable system that genuinely supports the wellbeing of vulnerable children and families," Ms Lovell said. Premier Jeremy Rockliff said: "We're supporting all the recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry, which includes increased investment in child protection."
The Guardian
10 hours ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
US supreme court backs age checks for pornography sites to exclude children
The US supreme court ruled that a Texas law requiring that pornography websites verify the ages of their visitors was constitutional on Friday, the latest development in a global debate over how to prevent minors from accessing adult material online. 'HB 1181 simply requires adults to verify their age before they can access speech that is obscene to children,' Clarence Thomas wrote in the court's 6-3 majority opinion. 'The statute advances the state's important interest in shielding children from sexually explicit content. And, it is appropriately tailored because it permits users to verify their ages through the established methods of providing government-issued identification and sharing transactional data.' Elena Kagan dissented alongside the court's two other liberal justices. The Texas law required would-be visitors to sites purveying 'sexual material harmful to minors' to submit personally identifying information to verify their ages and determine they were 18, of age to access a page with more than a third pornographic content, per the law's standard. The Free Speech Coalition, a trade group representing adult entertainment professionals and companies, including and had sued the Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton. The coalition argued that the mandate unfairly hindered the constitutional right of consenting adults to access constitutionally protected explicit material and exposed the sites themselves to privacy risks by foisting the burden of verification on them. The court heard arguments in Free Speech Coalition Inc v Paxton in January. After two hours of oral arguments, the justices appeared divided over the law's constitutionality. A federal appeals court had previously cleared the way for the law, lifting a lower court's injunction. The federal judge in the case had said the law furthered the US government's legitimate interest in preventing minors from viewing pornography. On Friday, the supreme court affirmed that decision. The ruling sets a precedent for the two dozen states in the US that have passed age verification laws. Pornhub, widely estimated to be the most-visited site for pornographic content in the world, has made itself unavailable in 17 of them. Texas, the second-most-populous state in the US with 31 million people, is the highest-profile example. The state legislature passed a law requiring the submission of identifying information to visit Pornhub and other adult sites in September 2023. In March of the following year, the site went dark in the state, greeting would-be visitors with a banner calling the law 'ineffective, haphazard, and dangerous'. It remains unavailable today. In Louisiana, which has also imposed age verification laws, Pornhub is still available, but it has seen traffic there decline by 80%, which the company attributes to the barrier of the ID requirement. Research into age-gate statutes in the US has found that they are not effective in their stated goal. Online search data showed that people in states with age verification laws sought out porn sites that did not comply with local laws so as to circumvent the age gates as well as virtual private networks to hide their locations from internet providers. Pornhub's parent company, Aylo, has argued in favor of content-filtering software or on-device age verification, in which a phone maker such as Apple or Samsung would determine a user's age and pass that information to the websites a person visits, rather than forcing the site itself to obtain and host the information. Aylo's suite of sites returned to France last week after a three-week blackout, a protest against an age verification law there. An administrative court suspended the law while it reviewed compliance with European Union regulations. Sign up to TechScape A weekly dive in to how technology is shaping our lives after newsletter promotion The UK is likely to be the next front in the fight over age verification. Pornhub and other pornography websites have promised to implement age checks there in compliance with the Online Safety Act, which requires 'robust' age-checking methods be put in place this summer.
Forbes
12 hours ago
- Politics
- Forbes
FIFA Under Fire Over Missing Safeguarding Protections For Children
Teen activists from the Equality League call on FIFA to protect children at the 2026 World Cup on 19 ... More June, 2025 at Barclays Center in New York City, United States. On Juneteenth, a group of local teenagers attended the New York Liberty's match against the Phoenix Mercury. They ate brisket sandwiches and fries, and enjoyed Breanna Stewart's 35-point cameo that ultimately didn't carry the home team to victory. More importantly, they had come to the Barclays Center to raise awareness for their 'Dear FIFA' campaign which spotlights the soccer body's lack of a comprehensive safeguarding policy for children. In the stands, Ariana Dyk, aged 15 and a striker in her school's soccer team, started supporting the campaign because of the Larry Nasser scandal. A member of the Equality League Youth Council, she had a clear message for FIFA: 'Protect kids at all major sporting events so they can both enjoy and be a part of what makes them happy, so they can feel safe doing what they love.' In a letter earlier this month to FIFA president Gianni Infantino and FIFA head of human rights Matthew Mullen, the Equality League demanded that FIFA implement a child safeguarding policy for the 2026 World Cup. FIFA and Mullen did not reply to questions for this article. The letter called on FIFA to establish clear rules and reporting systems to prevent abuse, exploitation and harassment, and require mandatory safeguarding training for all staff and volunteers. 'The time for promises has passed,' wrote the Equality League. 'FIFA must lead the sports world by protecting the youngest people in it.' FIFA is staging the expanded 32-team Club World Cup in the U.S., a tournament that taps into the lucrative club game and serves as a dress rehearsal for the 2026 World Cup that the U.S. will co-host with Mexico and Canada. Millions of visitors are expected. The 2026 bid promised to 'develop and implement child safeguarding protocols', but that framework has not been rolled out according to rights groups. Safeguarding also played a central role in the 'FWC2026 Host City Human Rights Framework' which promises to 'ensure and promote child protection.' A recent report 'Keeping The Game Safe' by the University of Miami School of Law Human Rights Clinic and the Centre for Sport and Human Rights, detailed the risks to children at mega-sporting events, with substantial recommendations for FIFA and the 2026 hosts. Mandatory safeguarding training and establishing safeguarding officers are but two of them. In April, Human Rights Watch wrote: 'Event organizers should put in place mandatory safeguarding training, binding child protection standards, designate trained and experienced safeguarding officers at each venue and host city, and implement a centralized reporting system. Venues should have child-centered design and stringent protections against child labor.' FIFA does not have a good track record in protecting vulnerable members of society, illustrated by the sexual abuse scandal in Haitian women's soccer and the plight of migrant workers in Qatar. It even took the world federation years to establish a safe sport entity to protect female players. It's the latest controversy to cast a shadow over FIFA. During the Club World Cup, soccer's world federation dropped its anti-racism campaign, prompting a backlash. 'It's more than a shame that a message of inclusion can't be broadcast to the world, and that those of us who are stakeholders in this area haven't been informed,' said Piara Powar, the executive director of campaign group body Fare. Mara Gubuan, the founder and executive director of the Equality League, wants FIFA to follow up on the promise made by the 2026 bidders. Having campaigned on FIBA's ban of the hijab and the ban of Iranian female fans from stadiums in the country, Gubuan said: 'It's FIFA's responsibility - from top-down to establish and enforce policies to protect children in all activities related to FIFA.' She added: 'We don't have any evidence that this is under way.' Watching the New York Liberty, Sai Malladi, aged 15 and avid basketball player, concluded: 'Through FIFA - if the rules are actually in place - it will set a precedent around the world for a safer environment in sports for children.'
CTV News
12 hours ago
- CTV News
Man charged with sexual assault of a 4-year-old boy
Windsor police have charged a 46-year-old man in connection with the sexual assault of a 4-year-old boy. On June 25, the Major Crimes Unit launched an investigation after receiving a report that a four-year-old boy had been sexually assaulted by a man the previous evening. The preliminary investigation revealed the suspect, described as a family friend, allegedly committed the assault while alone with the child during an unsupervised outing. The child's parent noticed significant injuries after the incident, prompting an immediate trip to the hospital and a call to police. However, before officers could locate the suspect, he had crossed the border into Michigan. Investigators quickly issued an arrest warrant for the suspect, identified as Shahzad Hameedi. On Friday, members of the United States Marshals Service, with the assistance of the Ontario Provincial Police-led Repeat Offender Parole Enforcement (ROPE) Squad, located and arrested Hameedi at a residence in Royal Oak, Mich. He will be returned back to Windsor, where he faces charges of aggravated sexual assault and sexual interference with a person under 16 years of age. To protect the identity and privacy of the victim, no further details will be released at this time. Anyone with information is urged to call the Major Crimes Unit at 519-255-6700, ext. 4830. They can also contact Windsor & Essex County Crime Stoppers at 519-258-8477 (TIPS) or online at If you or someone you know is an affected person in need of support, please call Victim Services Windsor Essex County at 519-723-2711 or the Victim Assistance Unit at Windsor Police at 519-255-6700, ext. 4979.
