Number of children who are sexually approached and/or solicited online
According to Online Victimization of Youth: Five Years Later conducted by the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire, approximately one in seven youth online (13%) received a sexual solicitation or approach over the Internet; 4% of youth received aggressive sexual solicitations; 4% of youth Internet users had distressing sexual solicitations; and 2% of youth had solicitations that were both aggressive and distressing.

Profile of an online predator
Most predators are adult men. Normally, the online sexual predator is seductive, introverted, sadistic, sexually and morally indiscriminate.
According to Online Victimization of Youth: Five Years Later conducted by the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire, 75% of sexual predators asked to meet youth in person; 34% called youth on the telephone; 18% came to youths' homes; 12% gave youth money, gifts, or other items; 9% sent offline mail to youth; and 3% bought travel tickets for youth.

Categories of crimes:

possession, manufacture and distribution of child pornography;
online enticement of children for sexual acts;
child prostitution;
child-sex tourism;
child sexual molestation (not in the family);
unsolicited obscene material sent to a child;
misleading domain names.

Children age group statistics

Average age of first Internet exposure to pornography 11 years old
Largest consumer of Internet pornography 12 - 17 age group
15-17 year olds having multiple hard-core exposures 80%
8-16 year olds having viewed porn online 90% (most while doing homework)
7-17 year olds who would freely give out home address 29%
7-17 year olds who would freely give out email address 14%
Childrens' character names linked to thousands of porn links 26 (Including Pokeman and Action Man)

Related Articles

Signs That Your Child Might Be at Risk from Online Predators
Measures Your Can Take if Your Child is Being Targeted by an Online Predator

Signs That Your Child Might Be at Risk from Online Predators

Your child spends large amounts of time on-line, especially during the evening and at night;
You find out that your child hide pornographic material;
Your child receives phone calls from a man or a woman you don't know or makes calls to numbers you don't recognize - sometimes long distance;
Your child receives mail, gifts, or packages from someone you don't know;
Your child becomes withdrawn from family and friends or quickly turns the computer monitor off or changes the screen if an adult comes into the room;
Your child is using someone else's online account.

Measures Your Can Take if Your Child is Being Targeted by an Online Predator
Should any of the following situations arise in your household:

Your child or anyone in the household has received child pornography;
Your child has been sexually solicited by a man or a woman who knows that your child is under 18 years of age;
Your child has received sexually explicit images from a man or a woman that knows your child is under the age of 18.

Contact in Canada
If you're a Canadian and your child is being targeted by an online predator, contact your local police. You can also report incidents to the bilingual Cybertip.ca hotline at http://www.cybertip.ca/en/cybertip/. Cybertip.ca is Canada's National Tipline for reporting the online sexual exploitation of children.

Contact in the United States
If you're an American and your child is being targeted by an online predator, contact your local or state law enforcement agency, the FBI at http://www.fbi.gov/contactus.htm, and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at http://www.missingkids.com/. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children's (NCMEC) mission is to help prevent child abduction and sexual exploitation; help find missing children; and assist victims of child abduction and sexual exploitation, their families, and the professionals who serve them.

[ back to top ]

Online Safety Tips for Parents

It is a parent’s responsibility to keep informed of new technology trends and to ask their children questions about their online activities. Here are some helpful safety tips:

Talk to your child about using the Internet safely and explain your concerns about online child pornography and sexual harassment.
Limit the amount of time your children spend on the Internet. Learn how your kids spend their time online. Are they downloading illegal files, chatting with friends or playing games? Which sites are they visiting?
Caution children about giving out personal information. Predators ask for phone numbers or personal information because eventually they will want to escalate the communication to a phone call and possibly a face-to-face meeting.
Install an Internet filter. With the proper parental controls you can manage Internet access, monitor chat and stop illegal file sharing. Most ISPs offer discounted rates for child safety software and some online service providers provide child safety features as part of the service. Check with your ISP to see what options and recommendations they provide.

[ back to top ]

Online Safety Tips for Children

Don’t give out personal information such as your last name, address, telephone number, parents’ work address/telephone number, or the name and location of your school without your parents’ permission.
Tell your parents right away if you come across any information that makes you feel uncomfortable.
Never agree to get together with someone you “meet” online without first checking with your parents. If your parents agree to the meeting, be sure that it is in a public place and bring your mother or father along.
Never send a person your picture without first checking with your parents.
Don’t respond to any messages that are mean or in any way make you feel uncomfortable. It is not your fault if you get a message like that. If you do, tell your parents right away so that they can contact the service provider.
Don’t give out your Internet password to anyone (even your best friends) other than your parents.

[ back to top ]

Facts about Child Pornography & Cyber-Pedophiles

What Is Child Pornography?
Child pornography can consist of a child or children engaged in sexual behavior alone or with one or more adults, or it could involve two or more children performing sexual acts, with or without adults being involved or being visible. Such imagery can range from sexualized photographs of a single child or children, or sexualized images and other forms of degradation.

Sexually explicit conduct includes various forms of sexual activity such as intercourse, bestiality, masturbation, sadistic or masochistic abuse, and lascivious exhibition of the genitals. It is illegal to possess, distribute, or manufacture these images.

These illegal images can be presented in various forms including print media; videotape; film; compact disc, read-only memory (CD-ROM); or digital versatile technology (DVD) and can be transmitted through computer bulletin-board systems (BBS), USENET Newsgroups, Internet Relay Chat, web-based groups, peer-to-peer technology, and an array of constantly changing world wide web

Who is a Cyber-Pedophiles?
Because the Internet makes it easy for individuals who want to sexually exploit children to access thousands of young web users, parents are strongly encouraged to talk to their children about the dangers of surfing the web.

Specifically, there are two kinds of online predators or cyber-pedophiles. There is the predator who slowly tries to build a relationship with a child through attention, affection and kindness, and the predator who immediately engages in sexually explicit conversation. Regardless of the approach, a child can easily become a victim.

According to the FBI’s Parent Guide to Internet Safety, the predator who tries to build a trusting relationship will gradually seduce their targets through the use of attention, affection, kindness, and even gifts. They listen to and empathize with the problems of children. Sometimes they pretend to be children. They will learn the latest music, hobbies, and interests of children in order to build relationships and trust with children. These individuals attempt to gradually lower children’s inhibitions by slowly introducing sexual context and content into their conversations.

There are other individuals, however, who immediately engage in sexually explicit conversation with children. Some offenders primarily collect and trade child-pornographic images, while others seek face-to-face meetings with children via online contacts. Chat rooms, web cameras and instant messaging programs make it very easy for children to be indirectly victimized through conversation as well as the transfer of sexually explicit information and material.

Where Can I Find More Information?
To obtain further information about protecting your child online, visit the FBI’s website at www.fbi.gov/publications/pguide/pguidee.htm or go to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s Child Safety on the Information Highway and Teen Safety on the Information Highway pamphlets www.missingkids.com.

[ back to top ]