North Dakota BCI: Online grooming, sextortion and AI imagery are driving record cyber tips; digital forensics are costly

BISMARCK — Stephen Harstad, chief agent with the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation, told a legislative study committee that most crimes targeting children now begin online and that the state is seeing record levels of cyber tips, with roughly 2,500 expected in 2025.

Harstad said the BCI’s Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) or cybercrime unit — now staffed in the state’s four largest cities with new coverage recently added for Grand Forks — is “the front end” for these investigations. He described three common patterns: traditional grooming aimed at meeting a child in person, sextortion in which victims are coerced with threats or fraud, and coercion to obtain images. “Sextortion is a real problem that we’re seeing,” Harstad said, warning that victims often face extreme embarrassment and suicide risk.

The BCI chief stressed the growing role of synthetic, AI-generated imagery and the difference between wholly synthetic images and digital manipulation of real photos. He told the panel that verifying whether imagery is AI-generated is difficult: “We don’t have, I would call it, a good version of that at this point,” and examiners frequently review other device artifacts to confirm authenticity.

Harstad outlined the investigative burden: every cyber tip is reviewed (he named special agent Jesse Smith as the first reviewer for state tips), many tips require warrants to open, and cases often need multiple warrants and subpoenas to trace suspects across platforms. Digital forensics, he said, is the backbone of these cases and “about $500,000 a year” across state and local agencies to extract and examine devices.

To help fund that work, Harstad said the 2025 legislative session passed Senate Bill 2167, which added a conviction fee — up to $100 depending on a judge’s finding of ability to pay — that will flow into an ICAC fund beginning after Aug. 1. “So we’re hoping … that really helps with that financial piece that is a big burden on the digital forensics portion,” he said.

Harstad also reported that cryptocurrency is increasingly present in investigations — used for payments tied to sextortion, CSAM, trafficking and fraud — and said BCI had about 15 active crypto cases internally and roughly 120 BCI cases that had used cryptocurrency in some way.

Committee members asked about federal action on AI and whether an executive order or federal preemption could limit state regulation. Harstad said he had not followed recent federal developments closely but supported some “guardrails,” and staff (Victoria) offered to supply a memo on federal activity and on the Take It Down Act.

Lawmakers also focused on prevention. Multiple members urged upstream education and community investments — teaching children digital-safety skills, creating “third spaces” for youth and ensuring victim services. Harstad said the BCI co-locates victim services staff with investigators and examiners to provide trauma-informed support from case start through prosecution.

The committee did not take formal votes at the hearing. Members asked staff to research federal AI actions, review how other states approach prevention curricula and provide presentations that were not yet uploaded. The committee set a tentative follow-up in April and adjourned.

Sources: presentation and answers by Stephen Harstad, chief agent, North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation; committee discussion and staff comments.