AR Grandmother Says Child Porn Being Shared on Facebook Pages
By: Marci Manley, KARK 4 News
Updated: October 9, 2012
What Tonya Morrow found on Facebook would give any grandmother goosebumps.
"There's been pictures of naked children and pictures of men performing sexual acts with children," she said. "It really just made me sick."
She's found multiple pages, many with posts in Spanish, but to her the images need no translation.
"There's no doubt in my mind this is child pornography," she said. "And while the conversations are in Spanish, you can translate them. One of the administrators even told the users that if they were interested in purchasing children, they could message him directly and he would tell them how. "
The pictures and videos, Morrow said, are posted just long enough to be downloaded by users and then deleted.
"When I've reported it to Facebook, they tell me the picture has been removed and there isn't anything they can do," she said.
On other items, when she has reported the suspected child pornography, there's been little response or action by the company.
"I kept getting messages that they had a strict nudity/pornography policy, but they didn't see anything wrong with them," she said. "It broke my heart, so I decided to reach out to the news media."
According to the FBI, social media sites have become an arena for this type of activity.
"It's not unheard of ," said FBI Special Agent Kimberly Brunell. "If someone is inclined to want to share child pornography -- those social sites are the way to do it."
The FBI encourages users to police pages like these, by reporting them to law enforcement.
"We have our investigators that are dedicated solely to working allegations against children using the internet," she said. "But we're also part of the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task force. That combines local, state, and federal officers who investigate these on all levels."
Users can report suspected child pornography sites and pages either by phone to ICAC , by phone at 1-800-843-5678 or online at cybertipline.com.
Arkansans can also make reports to the FBI by calling 501-221-9100.
Morrow has already called the FBI, and she's just getting started.
"I just wonder how many of these children are missing," she said. "How many of them have moms and dads that are looking for them. They click on this wall on Facebook and there's their babies."
Aside from being a concerned mother -- Morrow has her own reasons for wanting to see sites and pages like these shuts down.
"I was actually sexually abused as a child. So, I know what it's like to live with the guilt and shame of something that you didn't have any control over, but you'll live forever with the struggle of convincing yourself it's not your fault," she said.
And that's why a woman from Arkansas will continue to fight the faceless Facebook posters, in hopes that the next post could be the last.
KARK contacted Facebook for a comment on their pornography policy and methods of reviewing reported content. So far, we have not received a response.


