Sex predators blackmail children online
Law enforcement agencies said online sexually precocious behaviour by young people — from flirting, to sexualised chat and sharing of sexualised or indecent images (sexting) — is increasingly putting them at risk.
The report produced by Europol said offenders will increasingly use young people’s sexualised behaviour online as a justification for their sexual exploitation.
However, it said it was no longer practical to restrict young people’s access to the internet and social media in a bid to protect them and instead the focus should be on educating them.
The Virtual Global Taskforce (VGT) Environmental Scan 2012 found:
*Online child abusers are becoming increasingly sophisticated in their forensic awareness to cover tracks;
*Online child sexual exploitation is fuelled by compulsive internet usage among offenders and online networks of such people;
*Offenders are paying as much €900 for new child abuse imagery;
*Law enforcement agencies are suffering from lack of staff and resources in tackling a growing problem.
The report was compiled by VGT, a group of global law enforcement agencies, and published by the European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) at Europol.
“We can expect to see new offenders, new victims, and new means of committing crimes against children,” said Troels Oerting, the head of EC3.
Cecilia Malmström, the European commissioner for home affairs, said: “It [the report] draws attention to some worrying developments, for example the fact that individuals involved in the distribution of child abusive material are increasingly making use of hidden services, anonymisers and encryption, and the fact that teenagers are more exposed to online grooming and sexual solicitation than younger children.”
The report said researchers and police had noticed a change among online predators, where “blackmail, extortion, and aggression are increasingly used in approaches to children at the expense of more deceptive tactics”.
It said sexting, often between a young couple, was a growing phenomenon and some of the images were leaking out into wider peer groups and even into child abuse material collections of offenders. However, it said sexting, while risky, was “arguably now part of adolescent development” and that it was no longer realistic to try and restrict young people’s online activities.
*europol.europa.eu
