Children on the Internet

The Internet has become one of the most important and available resources to people everywhere. There are an estimated 1.4 billion Internet users worldwide with 248 million in North America in 2008, an increase from 360 million users worldwide and 108 million in North America in 2000. The Internet is an amazing avenue for communication, an incredible repository of information. In the United States more than 90% of young people have been online by the time they are 9 years old.

In addition to providing opportunities for learning, the Internet is an effective communication network and provides an infrastructure for group discussions among people from every corner of the planet. Likewise there are boundless sources of entertainment including interactive venues where games can be played with others, and sites that demonstrate ways to learn tools and skills. Children are expected to have Internet access to have a reasonable chance of reaching their full potential.

While the positive value of the Internet is undeniable, there also are concerns, especially as it relates to children. Advertisers are using the Internet to promote and to sell products to this age group. Some sites promote dangerous behavior such as anorexia by providing helpful hints to limit intake, purge, and exercise excessively. Sites also can include offensive language, ideas, or images, including pornography and obscenity. Online pornography is a multibillion dollar industry with an estimated 4.2 million pornographic websites in 2006. In addition, cyber-bullying has become a significant problem and can be extremely harmful to those who are targeted in this way.

There are many ways that young people communicate electronically. E-mail was the earliest form of Internet communication. This new technology suddenly allowed people to connect electronically with relatives and friends and even to meet people with efficiency and ease that never existed previously. While young people tend to consider many of these new contacts as “new friends,” they often have no idea who is at the other end of an electronic message. A 30-year-old man can become a 13-year-old boy or girl. An extension of e-mail is instant messaging where several individuals are involved in a single electronic conversation similar to a conference call.

The simplest form of electronic communication is by text messaging using cell phones. Since many cell phones now are equipped with cameras, images can be sent as quickly and effortlessly as a text message. Text messaging can be safe by limiting contacts to telephone numbers of known individuals. However, messages and images from unknown sources can be easily forwarded to anyone, anywhere with a cell phone. Also, many cell phones now are connected to the Internet, thus increasing the reach and potential circulation of cell phone messages. In this way a private message, which may include photos not intended to be shared beyond a single recipient, can end up anywhere in the world accessible through cyberspace.

A chat room is a virtual place set up by individuals or web pages to facilitate discussion of a specific subject or to bring together people with similar interests. For example, a chat room can provide a forum for individuals or family members with a serious but uncommon illness to connect with others in a similar situation. Many chat rooms are monitored, meaning that there is a leader who controls and participates in the discussion, ensuring that inappropriate topics are not introduced or that the forum is not otherwise misused. However, other chat rooms are unmonitored and there is no way to know exactly who is participating in a given discussion.

Predators often use chat rooms as a mechanism to meet vulnerable youth. For example, an adult could join a discussion intended for young people by posing as a teenager in a chat room about cheer leading or teen fashion. This person can then initiate direct contact with other chat room members outside of the chat room. Once a relationship is initiated with other participants, the predator will search for opportunities to continue and develop it. As another example, a person could participate in a discussion about science or architecture that would not be expected to specifically attract young people. Once a young person identifies him/herself, the predator will use this opportunity to portray himself as having similar interests and pursue a direct correspondence.

The newest type of electronic communication comes from social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace, each with more than 100 million users. These sites allow customers or users to create web pages where personal information is shared. Some sites are general but others aim toward specific groups such as BlackPlanet (African Americans, with 20 million users), specific interests such as Flixster (movie buffs, 63 million users) and for specialized groups such as BTMS (actors and filmmakers, 15,000 users). Unfortunately, many teens use poor judgment in managing their sites and include personal information or provocative images. One study found that nearly two thirds of adolescents post photos or videos of themselves, almost 60% list the city in which they live, and half give the name of their school. Nearly 60% do not feel that posting a photo or video on public networking sites is dangerous and half are unconcerned that posting private information might affect their future. When armed with the personal information and anonymity, a potential predator has an opportunity to begin a relationship that can progress to face-to-face contact. In one study, 14% of teens have met someone face-to-face after meeting the person online while 30% have considered doing so. Of those receiving messages from unknown people, 40% said they usually would respond and chat with that person. Older teens were more likely to allow a meeting. Only 18% said they would tell a parent. Younger users (8-12 years old) are much more likely to tell their parents. Ninety-six percent of this age group tells their mother and father about at least some of what they do online; 76% tell parents everything. Of those who tell someone when they receive online messages from unknown senders, the vast majority reach out to their mother (91%).

Most reputable social networking sites have built in safeguards that protect clients from unwanted or unknown contacts. For example, MySpace has a list of safety tips that include warnings such as:

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  “MySpace profiles and forums are public.”

  
  
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  “People online are not always who they say they are.”

  
  
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  “It is not safe or appropriate to pretend to be older or younger.”

Most sites have an age limit (usually 14 years old) for those registering and setting up sites. They also provide mechanisms allowing a site holder to limit access to those to whom specific permission has been granted. Sadly, despite the best efforts, there have been many examples of criminals, including sexual predators, registering under false names with false profiles.

In a survey of child Internet users, Wolak et al found that one in seven children had been solicited online for sex over a 1-year period. They also found that one in 25 youth had been aggressively solicited by a predator trying to arrange a meeting, calling the youth on the phone, or sending correspondence that may have included money or gifts. Roughly 80% of the solicitations occurred while the children were using their home computers. Only about one fourth of the children who were victims of solicitations told their parents. This type of sexual predation is not limited to adult perpetrators. More than 40% of all solicitations, including aggressive solicitations, were by individuals younger than 18 years. Nearly 10% of young people have been harassed through online contacts and more than a third found the episodes distressing. Children face danger in the presumed safety of their own homes and usually without their parents’ knowledge.

Case Examples

A 12-year-old boy is chatting with a 12-year-old girl via e-mail. The conversation becomes increasingly provocative with sexual undertones. Eventually the boy asks the girl if she has a web camera. She says she can borrow one from a friend and asks why. He asks for a picture of her, initially fairly playfully but eventually requesting one of her with no clothes on. The boy is actually 27-years-old. If the girl provides such a photo, it can become part of the network of child pornography without her knowledge. This is carried out in the privacy of the child’s own bedroom in complete secrecy from parents.

A series of messages are exchanged between a 13-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl who met online. Over time the girl tells her new friend that she and her family will be staying at a resort for their vacation at the end of the month. The boy excitedly points out to her that in an amazing coincidence, his father will be at the same resort at the same time attending a business meeting. He then tells her that he is going to send a gift for her with his father. The gift is to be a secret and she is not to tell anyone, not even her parents. The boy is actually 42-years-old and poses as “his father” at the resort.

In response to the Internet enticement of children and child pornography cases, the Justice Appropriations Act passed in 1998 directed the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) to create the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (ICAC), a national network of state and local law enforcement units to investigate cases of child sexual exploitation (Pub. L. No. 105-119). As of 2007 each state now has an ICAC Task Force to investigate and coordinate cases involving computers and the sexual exploitation of children. Because of the utility of the Internet, several jurisdictions often are involved, possibly from different states or countries. The ICAC task forces facilitate communication between the various agencies that are involved in the investigation of specific cases. Among techniques used are “sting” efforts where law enforcement officers pose as children and try to arrange meetings with predators, leading to the predators’ arrests. In 2006, ICAC investigations led to more than 2040 arrests and more than 9600 forensic examinations of children.

Child Pornography

The Internet provides a unique environment in which child pornography can proliferate. Early photographic child pornography had significant limitations for those producing the material. Film had to be developed and printed, which was time consuming, and required specialized equipment and space for a darkroom. Sending it out to be developed was extremely risky because of the possibility of discovery. The advent of Polaroid cameras and eventually camcorders made production much easier and quicker. However, distribution continued to be a problem. The material has to be transported, adding significant risk of being caught. Using the mail for distribution of child pornography adds the possibility of federal charges in addition to the violation of state laws. All of this changed with the introduction of digital photography and even more significantly with the explosion of the Internet. Suddenly it was possible to produce high quality photos and videos in secure places with minimal expense and then distribute them via the Internet with ease, anonymity, and relative safety from exposure.

Child pornography long has been an important and effective tool for those who sexually prey on children. It can aid in coercing children to perform sexual acts, it can be a powerful tool to ensure silence of the victims by threat of exposure. Perhaps most damaging, the images become a permanent record of the abuse. The Internet exacerbates this concern. Once these images hit the Internet, they never go away. Literally, they may show up again at any time and any place with the potential to cause great embarrassment or harm to the victim.

While the Internet has been a great boon to child sex abusers, others have used it as a stunningly successful avenue to distribute child pornography as a commercial venture with profits of billions dollars a year. The Internet Watch Foundation estimated that in 2006 there were more than 10,000 known child pornography domains with more than half housed within the United States alone. The estimated number of U.S. sites might be artificially high because of the disproportionate numbers of Internet Service Providers (ISP) and Electronic Service Providers (ESP) located in the United States. Child pornography sites can be incredibly profitable. One such site called Landslide Productions, managed by a couple in Texas, was identified with a list of more than 300,000 customers in 37 states and 60 countries. Customers were paying $20 to $30 a month to access the images. At one point this highly successful enterprise was taking in over $1.4 million per month.

There has been a concerted and coordinated effort to combat the growing problem of child pornography on the Internet. In 1998, the United States Congress authorized the establishment of the CyberTipline. Housed at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) in Alexandria, Va., analysts joined with federal law enforcement officers from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the U.S. Postal Service to collect tips about crimes involving child pornography and other sexual exploitation of children on the Internet. These agents work closely with other federal agents, state programs (such as ICAC), local law enforcement, and internationally with foreign agencies, such as Interpol and Scotland Yard. ISPs and ESPs now are required to immediately report child pornography found on their servers to the CyberTipline. More than 600,000 reports have been processed, which included more than 5 million images and video files. There has been a 250% increase in reports between 2004 and 2007 with more than 5 million images processed in 2007 alone. While many of these images are of individual children, many have more than one victim and in some cases the same victims have been identified serially at different ages over time.

Another important tool in the fight against commercial child pornography has been developed through the Financial Coalition to Combat Child Pornography, developed in cooperation with the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children and law enforcement agencies throughout the world. Credit card companies and financial institutions in the United States and Europe have come together to work with law enforcement to effectively stop the flow of money, thus interrupting the normal conduct of business transactions that involve child pornography. Countless sites have been shut down as a result of this effort. While it is more difficult to deal with the primary producers of child pornography and those who molest children, this assault on the financial aspect of child pornography had significant impact on the commercial capability of this illegal industry.

In 2002 the Child Victim Identification Program (CVIP) was initiated at NCMEC to assist local and federal law enforcement to identify victims who appear in the photos. CVIP has reviewed more than 15 million images submitted by law enforcement agencies. Using sophisticated technology and sharpened analytic skills, clues collected from the pictures are used to track the location where they were taken. Often it is possible to approximate the time that the photos were taken. By narrowing the search to a specific city or region, it often is possible to locate the victims and ultimately the perpetrators. According to Michelle Collins and Jennifer Lee of the NCMEC (oral communication November 2008), more than 1500 victims have been identified. Of this number 72% were girls and 28% were boys. Age demographics indicate that 54% of the victims are classified as prepubescent, 40% as pubescent, and 6% as infant/toddler.

As in other forms of child abuse, those who produce most of the child pornography are close to the children they exploit. Twenty-eight percent of those producing pornographic images are parents, 4% the partner of the child’s guardian, and 11% other relatives. Others are trusted family friends and neighbors (25%) and 5% baby sitters and coaches. Perpetrators who the children met online accounted for 13% of the images. Only 2% of victims of child pornography were identified as child prostitutes. Four percent of the images were produced by people that were unknown to the victim.

The most shocking statistic about those who produce child pornography is that 8% of the images were produced and distributed by the victims themselves. In April 2006, 16-year-old Justin Berry testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation about his operation of a child pornography site beginning at age 13, featuring himself and other teenage boys. In Victoria, Australia, investigators found that it was not uncommon for young people to possess child pornography, including youths as young as 10 to 14 years old. In one sting operation, Victoria Police found the most common age group possessing pornography was 15 to 19 years.

The involvement of young people in child pornography raises other important issues. Children are not immune to prosecution for posting such material. In many jurisdictions the underage possessors and producers of child pornography run the risk of having to register as sex offenders, and can face devastating consequences. In 2006 a 16-year-old boy was convicted of child pornography for posting a sexually explicit photo of two younger teens. He was sentenced to 2 years probation and 120 hours of community service. In another case in 2007, the Florida Appeals Court upheld the conviction of two girls (ages 16 and 17) for taking sexually explicit pictures of themselves and sending them via e-mail to each other. A 17-year-old boy was charged with a felony in May 2008 for having posted graphic pictures of his former girlfriend on his MySpace account. His former girlfriend had taken the photos herself and sent them to him via her cell phone. He said he was venting because she broke up with him. For these adolescents facing criminal charges, it is difficult to assess risk to others and to provide appropriate treatment, particularly if the youthful perpetrator also has been a victim previously. These are difficult questions that require careful study and considerable discussion in the future.

Virtual child pornography is another important facet of Internet child sexual exploitation. Using inexpensive software, it is possible to produce lifelike images of children from scratch or to manipulate actual photographs in a way to change the appearance of the victims. In this way the producers of the material can hide the identity of the victims or claim that the images are not real. This is particularly significant when the child victim has not yet been identified. Perpetrators and their attorneys can claim that if the subject has not been identified, the photo must be considered to be “virtual” and not within the scope of child pornography.

Congress enacted the Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1996 (CPPA) in an attempt to deal with this problem. There were significant first amendment arguments regarding infringement of free speech. Some were concerned that mainstream art forms, including movies, could be cited for using young adult actors in provocative roles. In Ashcroft v. The Free Speech Coalition , the U.S. Supreme Court held that the government may not criminalize such action because the production of “virtual child” pornography does not sexually abuse an actual child.

Congress subsequently passed the PROTECT Act of 2003. This bill was a comprehensive, multipurpose law aimed at addressing and preventing child abuse. In an attempt to address the Supreme Court’s concerns about the CPPA, one section dealt with virtual child pornography. In May 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld that part of the legislation specifically dealing with virtual child pornography.