The agency's director, John Morton, said 123 child victims were identified during the five-week investigation, which ended in early December. ICE and local authorities found 110 victims in 19 U.S. states, while the others were living in six countries elsewhere.

Morton declined to provide specific details about which foreign countries were involved, saying only that there were some cases in Mexico.

The investigation, dubbed "Operation Sunflower," was part of ICE's effort to find and rescue victims, and arrest abusers and people who make or transmit child pornography.

"We have to attack child exploitation relentlessly and together. There is no other way, there is no other answer," Morton said. "It is a wrong among wrongs. We are literally defending the defenseless."

Morton also announced arrest warrants for two unidentified adults charged in Los Angeles with molesting a girl who appeared in online photos to be about 13 when she was abused. The man and woman were identified only as "John Doe" and "Jane Doe" and authorities believe they may have been in the San Fernando Valley area north of Los Angeles when they abused the girl. Photos of the abuse investigators found online are believed to be about 11 years old, Morton said.

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Mattel is the maker of Barbie and Hot Wheels, but this year its top selling toy is a plastic cell phone case, according to the Financial Times (subscription required):

 Whether a new Kindle Fire, or a hand-me-down iPad, analysts predict 2012 will be the year children as young as three-years-old will unwrap tablets at trendsetting rates. And that has the traditional toy companies scrambling to stay relevant.

“The top two guys, Mattel and Hasbro, they are terrified,” said Sean McGowan, managing director of equity research at Needham & Company, an investment banking firm. “They should be terrified, but the official party line is they’re not terrified.”

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"Andrew Kirby said that he doesn't have to do homework tonight," she tells me on Dec. 11.

"Why?" I ask. Kirby's a middle-school classmate, a chunky wild man.

"Because he said to the teacher: 'Why bother? The world is going to end on 12-12-12 at midnight.'" She rifles through a Samsung Galaxy tab before she even gets her little ballerina arms through her NorthFace sleeves.

"The world doesn't end on December 12, 2012," I tell her, opening the front door to let her sister out into the cold. “The world ends on December 21, 2012. We have approximately 10 days left."

She lets out an exacerbated argh and climbs into the backseat of her mother's Prius with her younger sister in dance leotards. Ah, yes, the world may be coming to an end soon, but we are still trying to save her while sticking it to Exxon one mile at a time.

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According to a report from the Pew Research Center, more than half of all parents polled have begun to restrict their children's news access in the wake of Friday's mass shooting.

Fully 71 percent of parents with children in elementary school are trying to restrict how much coverage of the events their children watch, compared with only 36 percent of parents with older children. Six in ten parents (60 percent) with both elementary-school-age and older children are restricting how much coverage their children watch.

Parents have long grappled with age-appropriate ways to talk with their children about grown-up tragedy, with a number of instructional guides offering suggestions. But the question remains: How much is too much information to share with your kids?

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Inspired by other "millions" marches of the past, a movement to hold a One Million Child march on Washington in February to lobby for "sane" gun laws has sprouted up on Facebook. It's already garnered thousands of likes and RSVPs, because as the organizer, a father of two, asks, "Who could say no to a million kids? Not even Congress." Aside from the fact that Congress has a long and storied history of flipping the bird at kids, minorities, the elderly, the disabled — you get the point – the march has the potential to become a galvanizing moment not just in the debate over guns, but in the lives of thousands of families. It's an opportunity to teach kids the power of their voices, of their hope, of their love — and to show that power to the world.

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It’s probably one of the few occasions when some Americans might prefer China’s more heavy-handed rules, where private gun ownership is rare, and even sales of certain knives require permits.

But while American news media has been ablaze with stories on Newtown, Chinese mainstream media have downplayed coverage of their own domestic tragedy.

Online magazine TeaLeafNation noted that state-run China Central Television led the December 14 broadcast with news of the Newtown massacre, despite CCTV’s tradition of reporting domestic news before international news. Notes the piece: “Incredibly, days after the occurrence of the Guangshan knife attack, reporters still do not know the names of the children attacked.”

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A lot of crazy shit has happened since then. Samuel L. Jackson, Werner Herzog, Thandie Newton and an adorable Filipina grandma all did readings that went viral. Corporate publishers tried to buy the book away from tiny, independent Akashic Books for a lot of money, and we said no. Jenna Elfman randomly made a music video, and in return for our not suing her, met up with us in Miami with a plastic baby doll to speak to fans of literature. Time magazine named "Go the Fuck to Sleep" its “Thing of the Year,” presumably in a squeaker win over that bacon-flavored mayonnaise. Sam Jackson and I teamed back up for “Wake the Fuck Up,” a pro-Obama video that reminded America of the importance of voting and vulgarity.

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Of the Google Play and Apple Store apps reviewed, only 20 percent disclosed any information about the app’s privacy practices, while almost 60 percent of the apps were found to be transmitting information from a user's device to third parties, such as the app developers, advertising networks or analytics companies. Fourteen apps out of hundreds surveyed were also found to transmit the location of the device and the phone number, the FTC found.

The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act requires online service operators for children under 13 to get consent from parents before collecting and sharing personal information. Based on its findings, the FTC announced Monday investigations to determine if certain mobile apps developers have violated COPPA.

FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz commented in a written statement:

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Kevin Clash, the legendary voice behind one of Sesame Street's most beloved puppets, Elmo, has taken a leave of absence from Sesame Street after being accused of having sexual relations with a 16-year-old boy. Today, Sesame Street released a statement addressing the accusations:

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In addition to issuing Hardin a fine for $250 and suspending her license for 30 days, a judge has ordered that Hardin wear a sign that says "Only an idiot would drive on the sidewalk to avoid the school bus." Hardin must wear the sign "near the location of the crime for an hour per day, next Tuesday and Wednesday morning," according to Fox 8.

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Yoselyn Ortega had recovered from her wounds enough by Saturday to be interviewed by police in her hospital bed at New York Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center. After the interview, she was formally charged with two counts each of first- and second-degree murder.

Police didn't know if Ortega had a lawyer.

Police say that on the evening of Oct. 25, while the children's mother was out with a third child, Ortega repeatedly stabbed 6-year-old Lucia Krim and her 2-year-old brother, Leo.

When their mother, Marina Krim, returned with her 3-year-old daughter, she found their bodies in the bathtub, with Ortega lying on the bathroom floor with stab wounds to her neck. A kitchen knife was nearby.

The children's father, CNBC digital media executive Kevin Krim, had been away on a business trip when the killings occurred.

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We're with you, Abigael:

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The Republican senator was notified of the accident while coming off stage after a rally with GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney Saturday afternoon.

The senator campaigned with Romney at two Florida rallies on Saturday and was scheduled to attend a third before being picked up by a state police cruiser along Romney's motorcade route.

Rubio spokesman Alex Conant wrote in an email late Saturday that Amanda, who is the senator's oldest daughter, was in "fair condition" after the afternoon accident.

"While visiting with classmates, she was a passenger on a golf cart involved in a collision in a private gated community," Conant wrote. "She was airlifted to Miami Children's Hospital with a head injury. She has been admitted to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit."

"Senator and Mrs. Rubio are grateful for all the outpouring of support and prayers," he added, including calls from President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden and a personal message from Romney.

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Parents (and the general population) are understandbly unsettled -- the news is chilling, and it realizes a parent's worst nightmare. If it could happen to picture perfect Marina Krim, who ran a blog about her children and taught art classes, and her husband, the general manager of CNBC’s digital media, it could happen to anybody. As Gawker's Drew Magary writes:

Every parent wants desperately to protect their kids from the dangers of the outside world, only to quickly come to grips with the fact that they can't. All you can do is send them out there and hope for the best. You have to trust that the world will take care of them.

So when a nanny decides to kill two children in the most random and horrific way imaginable, it obliterates your trust in the world.

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"The Journals of Mama Mae and LeeLee" is about a young New York City girl's relationship with her wise grandmother. Keys produced music for the interactive app, which will be released Thursday for $3.99.

"It's a new adventure for me, and I'm really enjoying it," the Grammy Award winner said in an interview Wednesday.

The app is loosely based on Keys' relationship with her grandmother. It's centered in LeeLee's bedroom, and it allows users to read books, play music and write in a journal.

"It does remind me of my world," the New York-born singer said. "The piano, the journal, music's such a big part of my life, the city, all of that."

Keys is launching the app through her company AK Worldwide and Bento Box Interactive. She said raising her 2-year-old son, Egypt, was part of the app's inspiration.

"I was just getting introduced to kind of the TV shows and the DVDs and all the things you start kind of introducing your kids to, and I thought how cool it would be to be a part of something that really allows them to hear music from different places, different cultures, different sounds," she said. "That's what we're able to do with this."

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This year my husband and I welcomed our first child.

I'm grateful to be mother to my little boy, more every day as I watch him develop into his own person. I'm writing because becoming a mother has dredged up some emotions, and I'm not sure how to act or feel. I am really confused.

As an adult I have developed a really close relationship with my parents. Things were a bit strained when I was a teenager, and I always assumed that was normal. However, during a recent visit, my mom brought up an ugly incident from my childhood, and the more I think about it, the more I realize that I have sanitized my childhood, because the distance I gained when I moved out allowed me to do so. The incident involved a heated argument in which my father, at the behest of my mother, punched my brother several times. This was not an isolated incident, but it was the worst of many violent arguments with my parents that we dismissed as "not abusive" because nobody's nose was broken and no teachers saw any bruises.

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At the ultrasound eight weeks later, we laughed when we found out the baby was a girl. Her older sister was vibrating in anticipation of learning her sibling’s gender and entirely unprepared to accept the possibility of a little brother. The ultrasound technician found nothing troubling when she scanned the baby’s anatomy. Turning her attention to my ovaries, though, she saw a black circle that she couldn’t interpret. When they told me I could get dressed before the doctor came to talk to us, my spouse and I exchanged an anxious look: They never let you put your pants back on. The cyst on my ovary had grown significantly, it seemed, and now they thought they saw another growth on the other ovary, developments that could put my health and the baby’s at risk.

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I have read your column for a long time, and I have a problem that I suspect is not unique to me, and am not sure how to proceed.

My friend has a kid.

The kid is almost 11. I've known the kid since he was almost 8.

The kid is a brat. I don't mean occasionally overstimulated, whiny, badly behaved – every kid acts badly at times. I mean horrible, malicious, ruin-your-weekend kind of brat. The context where I encounter him is mostly formal activities that are led by his dad, my friend. Of course, these are activities I have paid to join, which adds insult to injury, or injury to insult, or something.

I do have fairly strict ideals for children's manners and behavior, since I was raised strictly, and I've tried to allow for that, but I do think that this kid's behavior is beyond any possible pale.

He needs to be the center of attention at ALL times, and whenever he isn't (and sometimes when he is), he gets rude and bullying. He imitates my accent. He demands things like, "Why do you always have that look on your face? Why are you always blinking?" He deliberately mispronounces my name. Asking him to stop is pretty much like showing a red flag to a bull. Trying to redirect him to appropriate behavior, ignoring him ... all just make things worse, and I don't feel like I can actually scold him considering he isn't my kid.  

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The six-page results arrived in the mailbox. I didn’t understand most of it, terms like “perceptual reasoning index” and “crystallized intelligence.” What? Intelligence crystallizes? And at such a young age?

I did, however, understand these lines: “Your child has not met the required criteria for placement in gifted. Your child’s intellectual ability falls within the average range.”

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I remembered that cloudy day when I was 17 and ran barefoot down the pebble path to the mailbox. When I saw my SAT score, I sank into the grass and cried.

I got a 1090. Back then, in 1985, the highest score was 1600. All of my friends — the smart kids — got somewhere around 1400. I thought I was one of the smart kids.

In fifth grade, I was put in Miss Thweat’s Language Arts class, which I knew was the hardest. In junior and senior high, I took honors classes and graduated Palmetto High in the top 10 percent.

Being smart meant getting into a good college, then becoming a brain surgeon, or a Supreme Court justice or winning a Nobel Peace Prize by ending world hunger. These were on my list of things to do when I grew up. Until I took the SAT and I found out I was average.

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I was researching a popular "jailbait" message board this week when I discovered a thread filled with webcam screengrabs and videos of what looked to be pubescent girls in various states of undress and sexual activity. I've come across "barely legal" porn before, but this was different: These girls looked like they weren't a day over 13. The intimate webcam context lent an additional believability to it: It was easy to imagine someone convincing each of these seemingly underage girls via video chat to take off their clothes, all the while recording the action to later distribute far and wide or even to use as a bribe to get future "shows" out of them.

That is what so-called "cappers" do -- and they are what brought me to the jailbait message board in the first place, and ultimately to the FBI. They screen-capture live webcam chats -- which can involve anywhere from two to several hundred people -- while pressuring girls and young women to strip down. It starts with "show your stomach!" and quickly progresses from there like an online game of Truth or Dare. Sometimes all they get is a quick bra flash; other times they get a full-on "bate" (when a girl masturbates on camera). In the capper community, the latter would be called a "win."

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