The Times: The rise in internet 'grooming'
By David Rowan
BY EXAMINING the computers used by Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells before their disappearance, police have drawn attention to a growth area in child-related crime. Paedophiles are using the internet to "groom" and then make contact with their victims.
Although detectives say that the computers represent only one of a number of lines of inquiry in the Soham case, child protection charities wasted no time in alerting parents to the potential dangers of strangers befriending children in internet chat rooms.
The dangers are real: in the past two years at least a dozen men have been jailed in England and Wales for sex offences involving children whom they met in chat rooms, according to the charity NCH Action For Children. This is why the Government has been considering whether to create a criminal offence of "grooming" children on the internet for sexual purposes, alongside a new civil protection order that would restrain named individuals from contacting children online. The recommendations came from the Home Office Taskforce on Child Protection, created in March last year to bring together the internet industry, the police and child welfare organisations.
The Government is aware, however, of the difficulties in determining what might constitute criminal activity. "We are prepared to update legislation where appropriate to keep up with new technology, and are considering the taskforce's proposals and working out how to take them further," a Home Office spokesman said. "There's a balance to be struck between adults making legitimate contact with children, and those with a harmful or illegal sexual purpose, and it is important to educate parents of the risks. But we don't want children not making use of this huge resource of information and knowledge that the net throws up."
The Government has so far preferred to work with the industry to publicise the risks. Last year it launched a £1.5 million public-awareness campaign and set up websites wiseuptothenet.co.uk and thinkyouknow.co.uk, aimed respectively at adults and children.
There are thousands of chat rooms, which allow people to "meet", usually through typed conversations. Although most discussions are held in public areas, private messages may be sent to individuals, a process known as "whispering", and one-to-one conversations may develop. What worries child safety campaigners is the ability of strangers to engage a child in conversation with little risk of third-party knowledge. "The dangers are pretty major," according to Matt Loney, editor of ZDNet UK, a technology website that campaigns for internet companies to take more responsibility for policing their chat rooms.
"There are no controls in place, and companies offering chat room services tend only to respond to complaints, rather than actively policing. So a kid can enter a chat room with an innocent title using any instant-messaging software, and within a couple of clicks they could be talking to paedophiles. A little smiley face on your screen signalling someone is online won't provoke the danger warnings that some old drunk in the street would trigger."
According to surveys, one in five children has visited chat rooms, and of those one in ten has met someone in person as a result.
It is not just chat rooms that worry police. The National Hi-Tech Crime Unit, the police body that focuses on internet-related crime, is currently examining a worrying new trend among British schoolgirls. Dozens of girls as young as 13 are creating personal websites, where they publish galleries of photographs and encourage visitors to buy them gifts from "wishlists" in various online stores. The police are concerned that paedophiles are targeting these schoolgirl sites, initially by offering gifts.
"It's a very worrying trend, and clearly something we should be getting a more accurate picture of," said Detective Chief Superintendent Len Hynds, who heads the unit. "Paedophiles are very good at grooming children in chat rooms, and I'd be very surprised if paedophiles weren't aware of these sites."
The schoolgirls call themselves "webcam girls" or "camgirls", and in most cases their parents remain ignorant of their activities. One of the sites seen by The Times is designed around a 14-year-old Lancashire schoolgirl's diary entries and 56 photographs of her striking poses in skimpy tops.
Kerry regularly receives gifts from her amazon.com wishlist. Men she has never met send her CDs and books.
"I can't tell you much about the people who buy me things, because I don't know who any of them are, or haven't as yet," she said. "I guess they're just people who enjoy the live webcam, my writing or whatever." Kerry said that she was regularly offered money by strangers to pose on her webcam.
Alexa, a 15-year-old camgirl from Northamptonshire who funds her site by advertising pornography galleries, explained that she would not tell her parents about her site, as it would make her "hold back" in her online diary.
"The whole stalker thing does worry me," she admitted. "Especially one guy who took pleasure in relaying to me my home address and such, and details about the weather, which I took to mean he was there that day."
(The Times, August 10 2002)
BY EXAMINING the computers used by Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells before their disappearance, police have drawn attention to a growth area in child-related crime. Paedophiles are using the internet to "groom" and then make contact with their victims.
Although detectives say that the computers represent only one of a number of lines of inquiry in the Soham case, child protection charities wasted no time in alerting parents to the potential dangers of strangers befriending children in internet chat rooms.
The dangers are real: in the past two years at least a dozen men have been jailed in England and Wales for sex offences involving children whom they met in chat rooms, according to the charity NCH Action For Children. This is why the Government has been considering whether to create a criminal offence of "grooming" children on the internet for sexual purposes, alongside a new civil protection order that would restrain named individuals from contacting children online. The recommendations came from the Home Office Taskforce on Child Protection, created in March last year to bring together the internet industry, the police and child welfare organisations.
The Government is aware, however, of the difficulties in determining what might constitute criminal activity. "We are prepared to update legislation where appropriate to keep up with new technology, and are considering the taskforce's proposals and working out how to take them further," a Home Office spokesman said. "There's a balance to be struck between adults making legitimate contact with children, and those with a harmful or illegal sexual purpose, and it is important to educate parents of the risks. But we don't want children not making use of this huge resource of information and knowledge that the net throws up."
The Government has so far preferred to work with the industry to publicise the risks. Last year it launched a £1.5 million public-awareness campaign and set up websites wiseuptothenet.co.uk and thinkyouknow.co.uk, aimed respectively at adults and children.
There are thousands of chat rooms, which allow people to "meet", usually through typed conversations. Although most discussions are held in public areas, private messages may be sent to individuals, a process known as "whispering", and one-to-one conversations may develop. What worries child safety campaigners is the ability of strangers to engage a child in conversation with little risk of third-party knowledge. "The dangers are pretty major," according to Matt Loney, editor of ZDNet UK, a technology website that campaigns for internet companies to take more responsibility for policing their chat rooms.
"There are no controls in place, and companies offering chat room services tend only to respond to complaints, rather than actively policing. So a kid can enter a chat room with an innocent title using any instant-messaging software, and within a couple of clicks they could be talking to paedophiles. A little smiley face on your screen signalling someone is online won't provoke the danger warnings that some old drunk in the street would trigger."
According to surveys, one in five children has visited chat rooms, and of those one in ten has met someone in person as a result.
It is not just chat rooms that worry police. The National Hi-Tech Crime Unit, the police body that focuses on internet-related crime, is currently examining a worrying new trend among British schoolgirls. Dozens of girls as young as 13 are creating personal websites, where they publish galleries of photographs and encourage visitors to buy them gifts from "wishlists" in various online stores. The police are concerned that paedophiles are targeting these schoolgirl sites, initially by offering gifts.
"It's a very worrying trend, and clearly something we should be getting a more accurate picture of," said Detective Chief Superintendent Len Hynds, who heads the unit. "Paedophiles are very good at grooming children in chat rooms, and I'd be very surprised if paedophiles weren't aware of these sites."
The schoolgirls call themselves "webcam girls" or "camgirls", and in most cases their parents remain ignorant of their activities. One of the sites seen by The Times is designed around a 14-year-old Lancashire schoolgirl's diary entries and 56 photographs of her striking poses in skimpy tops.
Kerry regularly receives gifts from her amazon.com wishlist. Men she has never met send her CDs and books.
"I can't tell you much about the people who buy me things, because I don't know who any of them are, or haven't as yet," she said. "I guess they're just people who enjoy the live webcam, my writing or whatever." Kerry said that she was regularly offered money by strangers to pose on her webcam.
Alexa, a 15-year-old camgirl from Northamptonshire who funds her site by advertising pornography galleries, explained that she would not tell her parents about her site, as it would make her "hold back" in her online diary.
"The whole stalker thing does worry me," she admitted. "Especially one guy who took pleasure in relaying to me my home address and such, and details about the weather, which I took to mean he was there that day."
(The Times, August 10 2002)
posted by David Rowan at Saturday, August 10, 2002
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