NCJ Number
186311
Date Published
1999
Length
5 pages
Annotation
This article discusses how Internet online chat rooms, online child pornography, and online networking among child molesters pose a threat to the safety of children.
Abstract
Child molesters prowl chat rooms to make contact with youth who are using the chat rooms. They befriend boys or girls and follow a seductive method that typically includes talking graphically about sex and e-mailing pornographic photos. In some cases, the online contact escalates to phone calls and then to direct contact and sexual molestation. The Internet has also provided a new avenue for the revival of child pornography and its use by pedophiles. Child pornography produced throughout the world can be downloaded by pedophiles armed with coded software that makes it very difficult to detect by police who patrol the Internet. Further, pedophiles form Internet networks through which their sexual attraction to children is fueled and affirmed, thus reinforcing rationalizations about their criminal tendencies and emboldening pedophiles to act on their feelings. Also, digital cameras have made it possible for pedophiles to transmit digitally online to other pedophiles their sexual contacts with children as they happen. Most experts agree that the Internet phenomenon is still too new to predict the future danger to children. Parents should monitor their children's use of the Internet as well as their contacts with adults outside the home.