Pedophilia Online

Legislation to Protect Minors

This is apparent in the extent of recent legislation aimed at protecting children from online predators and pornography. As early as 1988, the U.S. Congress made it illegal to possess, sell, or distribute child pornography over the Internet, and in 1996 the Telecommunications Act prohibited the use of pornographic images sent over the Internet to engage children in sexually explicit conversation or behavior. Despite legislation, the sexual exploitation of children over the Internet is still a problem today. It has become increasingly difficult to police child pornography Websites, primary due to multijurisdictional issues. Many of these sites or hosts are located outside the jurisdiction of the United States, where different laws apply to child pornography. As such, there are millions of images of children uploaded to the Internet, with an estimated 200 million new images being uploaded daily. It has become a big business endeavor with instant availability, anonymous and private access, and the ability to access different formats (including live Webcam videos) for different interests.

Users of child pornography are not usually involved in hands-on child sexual abuse or solicitation of minors for sexual encounters. Still, the Internet is often used as a facilitator for other forms of illegal activities directed at young children. These acts may include cyber-stalking, using the Internet to seek out victims or to solicit a child for sexual purposes, encouraging sex trafficking, and promoting child sex tourism. The most well known would be solicitation of a child for sexual purposes, and many prominent figures have been arrested and charged for this type of behavior. Often, the sex sting operations and subsequent arrests are televised via the MSNBC series To Catch a Predator. Typically, the sting operation involves a police officer entering an Internet chat room, pretending to be an underage child. Eventually, the “child” and an adult begin communicating and may continue to do so for varied periods of time. When the two agree to meet in person, the adult is arrested for soliciting a minor.

Legislation and law enforcement tactics to reduce and prevent these crimes are well intended and are applauded by many; however, they are often based on misinformation and distorted truths about online solicitation. For instance, research suggests that the majority of online solicitations do not involve adults and that despite popular belief adult solicitation of minors is a relatively rare occurrence. That said, when it does occur, most adult-child conversations online involve nothing more than what children hear or discuss with their peers. In addition, when minors were aggressively solicited, more often than not the offender was also a minor. Nevertheless, adult solicitation of minors for sexual behavior causes harm to the child. Although Internet sex stings are well intended, the best prevention measure is to educate parents about the potential dangers of the Internet.

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