Crimes against Children

by Englisharticle .info

Banking , Accounting , Employment

The Internet has provided a new medium for the victimization of children. Children are often naive and trusting of others and simultaneously are in need of attention and affection. This combination of traits contributes to children becoming an easy target to be enticed into illicit interactions with predators.

Sexual exploitation in cyberspace encompasses a continuum of perils to children, including solicitations by predators who lure young victims into face-to-face meetings to molest the child, and engagement with perverse individuals who send lewd messages, engage them into online sex, or supply them with pornography. Reliable figures about the prevalence of the physical molestation of minors by predators in cyberspace are unavailable. However, the Internet creates a context where children are accessible to predators who can easily locate victims and where they can validate their interests by receiving support and advice for aberrant interactions with children through online newsgroups.

These offenders may be pedophiles who prey on children in cyberspace; however, adolescents are also at risk for engaging in situational offenses as they search online for pornography and sexual opportunities. The vast and loose-knit network masks identities and provides a new context where curious and rebellious minors can be seduced and manipulated into indirect victimization through the transfer of sexually explicit information and direct exploitation.
The online predator is skilled at collecting information from children, searching profiles for vulnerable targets, and acquiring personal information on a specific child. Information available online can be used to engage in an online friendship, which is the initiation of the grooming process. Trust is established between the predator and the child through the sharing of information, the use of false identities, sending of gifts and pictures, and eventual desensitization to pornographic content. Subsequently, a meeting between the predator and the child may be arranged.