Postal Inspection Service

Child pornography
Since the enactment of the Federal Child Protection Act of 1984, the Postal Inspection Service has conducted more than 3,500 child exploitation investigations, resulting in the arrest and conviction of over 2,900 child molesters and pornographers. The Service increasingly is discovering that child molesters and pornographers are using computers, along with the mail, to find potential victims, to communicate with other criminals, and to locate sources of child pornography. Among the Service's undercover operations are the placement of contact advertisements in sexually-oriented publications, written contact and correspondence with subjects of investigations, development of confidential sources, and more recently, undercover contact with suspects via the Internet.