BROOKINGS — For all its positives — access to information, remote work, sharing photos with family and watching silly videos — the internet can also be a dangerous place for unwary netizens, and especially children.
It was a message hammered home during the Brookings County Commission meeting on March 17, where an updated joint powers agreement with the South Dakota Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force was approved on a 5-0 vote.
“We’re starting to see more and more types of crimes on the internet toward children,” Sheriff Marty Stanwick told commissioners. “I thought it was a good opportunity to jump on board with the Brookings Police Department and (South Dakota) Division of Criminal Investigation to work these cases. We’re starting to see some out in the county.”
State’s Attorney Dan Nelson spoke to the dangers of online predators as well, noting that the social media aspect of the internet can be very risky.
“I would just send a public reminder to all the parents who have children that use those social media apps: Most of the cases that we prosecute involving these types of crimes originate from these type of perpetrators at random targeting those children using social media apps,” he said.
Nelson emphasized the importance of parents paying attention to their children’s online activities.
“A lot of it happens because there isn’t parental supervision that’s happening in terms of the parents knowing who the children are talking to,” he said. ” … There’s solicitation that occurs, there’s manipulation, there’s grooming — all the indicators that a parent would be aware of if they knew who their child was communicating with and what their child was saying on these social media apps.”
According to the South Dakota Attorney General’s Office, the ICAC task force received 2,727 tips last year “related to the online sexual exploitation and online sexual victimization of children, including child sex trafficking.”
That was an uptick from the 877 tips in 2024.
Stanwick said Tom Chester and D.J. Reker, both with the sheriff’s office, will work on these types of crimes when there’s a referral that something is going on in Brookings County.
He added that there is no cost, and that the state will provide some equipment.
“They’re hoping down the road that we’ll get some grants for some other types of equipment, computers and so forth,” Stanwick said. “The biggest thing is probably going to be software and maintenance.”
Chester spoke to the importance of the updated agreement, noting that there’s been a spike in such crimes since 2020.
“It would better equip us in the investigations division to present a case to the state’s attorney’s office — know what we’re doing — and being able to handle things ourselves with the help of DCI and just be able to take on caseloads,” he said.
Chester pointed out that the expectation is there will be a couple of tips every year, and not necessarily on a weekly basis.
Nelson then asked Chester about the facts involved in a Brookings County case from March 2025 that involved a man who’d recently moved to Brookings. Nathan Nelson, who was 21 at the time, was convicted on Nov. 18 for fourth-degree rape involving a 14-year-old girl and is currently in the State Penitentiary in Sioux Falls. Dan Nelson said that the case involved the use of a cellphone, the internet, and social media.
“Do you want to just tell the commissioners what that case looked like and how something like electronic social media investigations work?” he asked. “I think that might a good example to show how this actually plays out in real life.”
Chester obliged, saying, “People are targeting younger children over social media apps such as Snapchat, just randomly adding them. That will lead to conversations of, ‘Hey, let’s hang out.’ Then it leads to an encounter — bad encounters with kids in our community.”
He noted that Snapchat isn’t the only app used by predators, either.
Stanwick said both Chester and Reker will have training through the DCI, and he will also allow them to provide aid to Kingsbury and Deuel counties if the DCI has need of them, in addition to lending a hand with the Brookings Police Department.
“It’s a good opportunity to work with other agencies in partnership,” Stanwick said. “We’re starting to see more (internet crime) and we need to try to get ahead of it.”
Following the presentation by Chester and Stanwick, Commissioner Larry Jensen seemingly spoke for all the commissioners: “I just would like to say, anything we can do to combat these crimes against children, I’m in favor of it.”
Dan Nelson reiterated his earlier advice as well.
“Just really try to monitor, supervise your child when they’re using these social media apps,” he advised. “These apps are wide open to the big internet out there, and there’s a lot of evil characters here in South Dakota and across the country that target your child to try to solicit these types of crimes.”
He closed with a simple, direct recommendation: “My advice to the parent is either get rid of the app or get parental controls on the app or really, really supervise your child.”
— Contact Mondell Keck at [email protected].
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