The sexual solicitation of children online
Online sex offences and online contacts leading to offline sex offences against children in Sweden
Young people love the internet
• 82 % of 9-11 year olds use the internet (2006) • 95% av 12-16 year olds • 28% and 54% respectively use the internet every day • Internet used for games and other forms of entertainment, schoolwork & homework, and for communicating with family, friends, acquaintances and others. • The social world of young people spans the ”real world” and the ”virtual world” – with no clear dividing line between the two
And the internet is a good thing
• Provides a medium for worldwide communication, in real time, and at very low cost • New possibilties for interactive learning and efficient access to high quality educational materials • Opportunties to improve skills in interpersonal communication • New opportunities for young people to learn about and explore any subject they choose – including human sexuality • Better networking opportunities for isolated or disenfranchised groups
But there are also downsides and risks
• Misleading information on any topic imaginable
• Easy access to violent images and pornography • New opportunities for bullying and sexual harassment
• Provides ill-intentioned adults with new opportunities for unmonitored access to children and with new methods of sexual exploitation
A first example – “dirty talk”
It’s a bit comical because my parents were watching TV in the same room. I’m not sure how old the guy was, but at least twenty. I sent a couple of pictures of my face (nothing sexual) and he started writing things like how he wished I was there so he could fuck me in the arse and the mouth, and other similar “dirty talk”. It wasn’t exactly a turn on, especially with my parents in the same room.
(Girl aged 13)
What I’ll be talking about today
• Online sexual contacts and online sex offences • Strategies used to arrange offline meetings • How widespread are sexual contacts from adults online – how many children are we talking about? • Relative prevalence of different types of sexual contacts
Data sources
• Online survey of (non-representative) sample of 1,000 15 to 17 year-olds • Police offence reports (N=315) of sex offences against persons under 18, where victim and perpetrator had been in contact via internet
• Transcripts of police interviews with victims of offline offences
• Nationally representative school sample of 15 year-olds (N=7,500)
The basic tools of internet communication
• Open chat sites
- Anyone can join in a conversation – no “membership” requirement - No private communication – everything visible to everyone
• Internet communities
- Require “registration” and allow you to create a “profile” visible to others - Opportunities for both public and private communication
• Instant messaging programmes (e.g. MSN-messenger)
- All communication private - Approval required from both parties before communication begins - Also provides opportunity to send pictures and for “video conversation” (via webcam)
Different examples of online sex-contact
• Sexual questions and “dirty talk”
• “Sexy pictures” • Offences involving webcameras • Extending contacts to mobile phone • Attempts to arrange offline meetings
“Sexy pictures”
I met him on a community and he got me to give him my msn-address. I didn’t have many friends, and low-self esteem, and he was nice to me. Then he started asking me to send pictures. I sent a few photos. We chatted more, and he started asking for naked pictures …I hesitated, but then I thought he was so nice, so why not, I’m never going to meet him. I took some more pictures and sent them. After a while I realised I’d been stupid and I blocked him and stopped using that address.
(Girl aged 13; Man aged over 35)
Web-cam – “Posing”
He asked me to show my breasts in the webcam and to have camsex with him, and he wanted to give me a dildo for my birthday …
(girl aged 13; man over 35)
He asked me if I wanted to touch myself in front of the webcamera
(girl aged 13; man over 35)
Web-cam – men exposing themselves
We chatted first in an open chatroom, then he asked for my msn and we talked more there. Then he turned on his webcam and started wanking for me. I shut him down straight away, and blocked him, and I haven’t been in touch with him since.
(girl 12; man 25-35)
Extending contacts – to mobile phone
I chatted with him a bit, then we swapped mobile phone numbers, and he sent a few texts asking friendly questions, then it got a lot dirtier
(girl under 12; man over 35)
After he got my msn he started writing about the ways he was going to have sex with me. So I blocked him. But somehow he got hold of my number and called me and said he was going to stick his sex-organ into me and, well, loads of things like that
(girl aged 13; man 25-35)
Attempts to arrange offline meetings
He started talking to me about my interests and he said he was 15, then after a week it came out that he was at least 25. He wanted to meet and do something fun, but my parents had scared me off stuff like that, so I gave up talking to him. But after a while I got a dirty mail where he said he’d met another boy.
(boy aged 13; man 25-35)
A man in his fifties wanted me to meet him to perform sexual services and get money for it.
(girl under 12; man over 35)
Offline sex offences – three main strategies
• Offers of modelling jobs
(Victims aged 13-17; Perpetrators aged 23-62)
• Offers of payment for sexual services
(Victims aged 14-17; Perpetrators aged 25-49)
• Friendship and romance
(Most victims aged 12-14; Perpetrators aged 17-44)
Elements common to offline sex offences
• Most victims were girls – all perpetrators were men
• Often signs of quite serious problems in victims’ backgrounds
• Victims often travelled to other towns to meet perpetrators
• Usually lied to parents about where they were going
• Parents usually unaware of online contact with adult until after offline offence had taken place
How many children exposed to sexual contacts online?
• School survey - representative sample aged 15
31 % reported online sexual contact from someone they “know or believe is an adult” over past 12 months (46% of girls; 16% of boys)
• Web-survey - non-representative online panel sample aged 15-17
21% reported a sexual contact from someone they “know or believe” was at least five years older prior to the age of 15. (33% of girls; 7% of boys)
An everyday online experience?
It happens almost every day that old men add you on msn and want to start talking about sex and send on the webcam when they’re masturbating and send pictures of their sex organs.
(girl)
Everyone with different fetishes hits on you if you log in as a girl. If you log in as a boy you get loads of comments from old men. They even offer you money for sex. Try it yourself!
(boy)
A pyramid-like phenomenon
More
Offline meetings
Vulnerability/ “complicity” required from child
“posing” phone contacts Adults exposing themselves Sexual questions/ online “dirty talk”
Amount of “manipulation” required from adult
Less
Measures to combat sexual contacts
• Information and education directed at children, youth, parents and teachers • Opportunities for internet industry actors to combat sexual contacts • New legislation against contacts with children for sexual purposes • Developing police methods to detect and investigate offences • Awareness of changes in young people’s social patterns among social workers etc. – “Ask the right questions”
Thank-you for listening
Full report and separate executive summary in English available at:
www.bra.se (under “publications”)