Local task force expands education as online threats to children rise

Since its founding in 2021, the Invictus Project has positioned itself as a local bridge between families and law enforcement confronting online threats to children. Two years ago the nonprofit partnered with the sheriff’s offices in Alamance, Davidson, Forsyth and Randolph counties to form a specialized task force that works with state and federal agencies to investigate child exploitation and related crimes.

The task force has focused heavily on investigating possession and dissemination of child pornography, a crime that online platforms are legally obligated to report. Those reports are channeled through the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and then forwarded to law enforcement. Whitney Miller, vice president of Invictus, said the scale of the problem is large: “In the state of North Carolina alone, we received 28,000 reports last year,” she recalled. “At this point, we’ve had more than 200 arrests, and the majority of the arrests that they do are based on those cybertips.”

Investigators have supplemented tip-driven work with undercover operations that involve officers posing as minors online. Alamance County’s sheriff’s office carried out several such stings during a 12-day operation in October called Ghost Wire, conducted with support from Invictus. Those stings produce highly visual results that often draw public attention, but Invictus leaders stress that enforcement is only one part of a broader strategy.

“The enforcement component is vital in this,” Miller acknowledged. “But we’re never going to enforce our way out of it. We can only do that with education.” She also emphasized how modern technology changes the nature of danger: “Parents are still looking for that scary, creepy white van in the parking lot,” she added. “But children are being lured to that white van by technology...Children are more aware of what this looks like because they’re living in it.”

For Alamance families, the immediate consequence is a twofold one: more arrests and investigative attention in the region, and a growing need for household-level prevention. Invictus recommends that young people learn to recognize signs of online grooming and to turn location-sharing off when using social media. It also warns that emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence, are creating less tangible channels that predators and exploitative material can exploit.

To respond to that need, Invictus will host a series of community forums later this month at Graham’s Trailhead Church. The first event on Tuesday, January 20 is aimed at parents, grandparents and concerned adults; a session for teenagers is scheduled for Sunday, January 25. The gatherings were organized by a small group of local residents that includes Alamance County commissioner Pam Thompson, a onetime school board member and former victim’s advocate who has pushed for greater public awareness.

The combination of cross-jurisdictional policing and localized education reflects a broader shift in how communities must manage online harm: coordinated investigations to hold offenders accountable, paired with neighborhood-level skills that families can use every day. For parents in Alamance County, that means staying informed about platform reporting, ensuring privacy settings are active, and taking advantage of the free community sessions aimed at keeping children safer online.