Sometimes disgruntled girlfriends and wives report that their partners have graphic pictures of children, according to Assistant Attorney General Jason Perry. "We even get (tips) from computer repair shops," he said.

But Montgomery said she believes most business owners "would rather turn their head the other way" than call the police if they find child pornography on one of their own employee's computer.

Recently, Montgomery said, law enforcement has taken a more "proactive" approach to finding offenders. Task force members spend a certain amount of time every day posing as children in online chat rooms, looking for adults who want to arrange to meet them in order to engage in sexual activity.

It's a method of finding these predators that has been criticized as entrapment, but U.S. Attorney Paul Warner said it's the only way to get at a new ground of cyberpredators known as "travelers."

Virtually unknown 10 years ago, more than 400 of these cases were prosecuted in the United States in the past year. Utah's task force has netted almost a dozen local cases in the past six months.

"Remember where we find these folks," Warner said. "They're adults in teenage chat rooms, and they're trolling. Every time we throw a line in the water, they're fighting to get on the hook. That doesn't sound like entrapment."

Montgomery said she has never heard of a traveler case that does not involve pornography in some way. Sometimes predators use adult or child pornography to "groom" children, desensitizing them to the actual sexual activity they hope to have in the future.

Hansen said every year he sees between 200 and 300 new porn sites on the Internet. Some of the sites are specifically designed to lure children. In one case, a Web site constructed in South America advertised Pok�mon trading cards. But when site visitors pushed a button for a catalog, they got a list of 18 child porn videos instead.

Child sexual abuse investigations also turn up child pornography.

"The prosecution of child pornography is increasing, because the prosecution of sex abuse is increasing," Salt Lake deputy district attorney Kent Morgan said. "It's difficult to see what the cause and effect is, but it's not difficult to see that these crimes go hand in hand."

Paula Houston, the state's obscenity and pornography complaints ombudsman, sometimes dubbed the "porn czar," agrees.

"Every single child sexual-assault case I worked on, pornography was involved," she said of her 15 years as a West Valley City prosecutor.