Disturbing: WA No. 1 in Child Porn, Not Enough Police to Arrest Everyone

Police believe hundreds of thousands of people regularly trade child pornography images. Catching them is easy... they often trade on publicly-accessible websites... but deciding who to arrest when each agency only has a handful of specialists is a challenge.

Law enforcement says they target people when children are currently at risk. But that doesn't help people who were abused years ago and the images are still regularly shared and viewed.

Those who have been arrested include coaches, aspiring police officers and even teachers. Some children are victimized by their own parents.

Seattle Police get up to 100 tips a week.

Even if law enforcement got more funding, public money would also need to increase for the courts since prosecutors are already over-burdened.

It's not an easy problem to solve, but it means police ignore child-porn consumers they are aware of, but don't have the resources to put behind bars.

What can you do? Employers can keep track of sites employees visit, families can keep computers in public places where it's hard to view pornography, and children can be given strict access to the Internet.

Also, support funding for this kind of policing. Seattle police say the public becomes concerned in fads. One year they get upset about meth, another about human trafficking, another about bike thefts, etc. Tell lawmakers you want more funding for prosecuting child porn.