Nebraska State Patrol to alert parents of explicit online content
New initiative aims to prevent online exploitation
LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) — The Nebraska State Patrol (NSP) is launching a new initiative to help protect children from online exploitation by notifying parents when their children are identified in reports involving sexually explicit content shared online.
The effort comes as Nebraska continues to see thousands of reports of potential online child exploitation each year.
NSP expects to receive around 7,000 cybertip reports in 2026, following a significant increase in recent years. According to Lieutenant Peter Rutherford, commander of the Nebraska Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, the state received approximately 5,500 reports in 2024 and nearly 7,500 in 2025.
About 10% of incoming leads involve minors sharing sexually explicit content of themselves with peers or potential online predators.
“With that increase in numbers, we’ve seen a corresponding increase in leads targeting or specific to children in our communities,” Rutherford said.
NSP says some of these cases involve sextortion, when someone threatens to share explicit images to blackmail or exploit a victim.
“But we are seeing, along with the rest of the country, a notable increase in sextortion type things,” Rutherford said. “And that’s where a decent number of these letters are going to be attempting to resolve.”
Under the new initiative, NSP’s Technical Crimes Unit will send letters to parents or guardians when their child is identified in qualifying cybertip reports involving sexually explicit content shared online.
The letters will include account information associated with the report, a brief summary of the reported activity, and resources to help families address the situation. Parents will also be provided information on how to contact the Technical Crimes Unit with questions.
Rutherford emphasized that the purpose of the letters is not to punish children, but to help prevent further harm.
“The intent behind the letter is not to put people on notice for bad behavior,” Rutherford said. “The intent behind the letter is to engage and prevent further harm from occurring.”
NSP hopes the notifications will encourage parents to have conversations with their children about online safety and identify ways to reduce the risk of future exploitation.
“Our hope is that they’ll speak with the child and get to maybe the root cause, how this occurred, and come up and collaborate with the child for ways to avoid future victimization or exposure to risk during their online activity,” Rutherford said.
Similar notification efforts have already been used by other Internet Crimes Against Children task forces. NSP says it hopes to build on those efforts in Nebraska by working directly with families to address potential risks before more harm occurs.
Parents and caregivers looking for additional information about online exploitation and resources to help protect their children can visit the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s website.
