T16 - Group 5 - Internet Predators - Why don't you take a seat over there?

Group Members
Kristina Persaud, Mandeep Dhillon, Jaime Iredale, Andy Lo, Zuhair Janmohamed

Group Name
Pedo Bears

Technology and Issue
Technology: Instant Messaging

Issue: The misuse of instant messaging.

Initial Statement
The Internet has become an amazingly impressive arena for social networking for the youth of today. Most young adults usually only focus on this attractive side though, and never fully realize the risk in engaging in social networking activities on the Internet. The truth is, the fastest growing crime in America are crimes against children on the Internet, and it is becoming quite a scary reality as predators are being let into children’s lives so easily with the use of instant messaging and network sites like MySpace. These technological means have come under criticism lately as critics say there is not enough protection for children against predators as one can never know who is behind a simple screen name. The main concern surrounding this issue though is how to stop and apprehend these Internet predators that prey on societies young and innocent. Our group will be exploring firstly a brief overview of who these people are and who they think, followed by the various methods our society and law enforcement use to stop these men, and how, instead of utilizing technology for the worst (as these Internet predators do), it may be used to assist in bringing safety and justice to our society and children.

What are Internet Predators?
The internet opens a wide world for internet predators. Child pornography has become a multi-billion dollar industry, and it is still growing [45]. Internet predators can be classified as those who find their victims online, usually in chat rooms, dating sites or popular networking sites [44]. It allows predators to be anonymous and hide behind a simple screen name [44]. The internet has no boundaries nor do the criminals that exploit children [46]. An average pedophile will victimize approximately 50-150 children before law enforcement realise there actions [48]. Internet predators will search children who post there profiles, name, age, photo, gender, physical description, and other personal information [48]. Predators usually are exercising a fantasy role-playing with the goal of fulfilling a sexual encounter with a child. Each predator usually has their own criteria for each child[50].

There are four basic types of offender you may find:

Travelers: These individuals will manipulate a child into meeting them in person for a sexual purpose. There ultimate goal is physical contact. They may arrange a meeting at a mal, school, field, theatre, or a home [54].

Collectors: These individual will collect child pornography, and may actually accumulate huge amounts. They usually trade these images with other collectors [54].

Manufacturers: These individuals create child pornography themselves on many types of media. They may bride, manipulate or use force to solicit a child [54].

Chatters: These individuals show themselves as trustworthy people in chat sessions. Chatters can appear to be harmless, who also collect child pornography but they may seek physical contact with their victims. They may even expose the child to sexually inappropriate material[54].

How do Internet Predators Lure their Victims?
Of the many ways to lure children, some predators choose to pose as childrens/teenagers during a conversation via the Internet. While many predators choose to use instant messaging as a form of communication, there are some predators that still prefer to communicate via e-mail [48]. However, in order to pose as children/teenager, predators must know the “popular hangouts, hobbies, and other interests of teens” [44]. Moreover, predators target those childrens/teenagers that follow a very consistent Internet usage schedule. That is, Internet predators look for those who are likely to go online everyday, at the same times each day, and are online for a long time everyday [48]. Additionally, predators also target childrens/teenagers that go online at the same times as they do. More important, however, predators tend to look for children ages 12-15 whom are “discovering their own sexuality and independence, and [...] are most likely to be conned into meeting with a stranger without telling their parents” [5]. Internet predators tend to be more “encouraged” if they find out that the child/teenager is from a single parent family, has problems with law enforcement, and has experimented with drugs/sexual activities [48]. Unfortunately, the majority of the childrens/teenagers that are targeted reside in rural areas, that is, only a small percentage of victims live in urban areas (or cities)[48]. Ultimately, children that are often victimized are usually those that are easily tricked, naturally caring, and searching for affection, that is, it is those children respond to the attention that predators give [49]. After gaining the trust of the children/teenager, the predator would be able to get in contact with other childrens/teenagers that are acquaintances of the victim [47].

What Internet Predators Do
By using Internet personal profiles that provides a person's name, age, gender, physical description, telephone number, address, and photo, Internet predators are able to find children that meet his/her own criteria [48]. That is, predators can easily find children that suits their preferences, such as gender, age, physical description, and interests, by using personal profiles that are available on the Internet [50]. Once the predator acquires a target, the predator may use various methods, such as disguising themselves as a teenager or by offering money and presents to the child, in order to befriend the child. By doing this, a predator basically is “accomplishing an exercise in fantasy role-playing” [50]. The next step a predator takes is to begin talking the child into meeting up. As a result, the child ends up being molested, raped, or worse. Ultimately, the goal for the predator is to find a child, that suits his/her preference and is located geographically close, with the hope of fulfilling a real sexual encounter with that child.

What Law Enforcement is Doing to Stop Them
Seeing as Internet crime is growing so fast, the FBI and many other police force units have dedicated whole division to apprehending predators. The FBI’s Innocent Images program has become the second-largest operation behind the Sept. 11 terrorism case [2]. In Canada, Saskatchewan’s provincial government is set to spend $1.12 million a year to expand its team of police for investigation the exploitation of children over the Internet [4].

Law enforcements often use an “online sting” to catch predators, that is, police officers often disguise themselves as a teenager and search on the Internet for suspected predators [44]. After they suspect someone as an Internet predator, the police would agree to meet up with the person and would arrest the suspected predator [44]. The “online sting” used by police is more or less the same as that used by Chris Hansen on MSNBC's Dateline (see “Dateline MSNBC:To Catch a Predator's Influence” below.) Although there may be other ways to catch predators, the sting is thought to be the most efficient way to catch a predator and to minimize the trauma experienced by a victim [50]. However, undercover police officers can not simply suspect anyone and enforce a sting operation without a particular reason [44]. Furthermore, undercover police officers must never initiate talks of a sexual nature with a suspect nor are the officers allowed to hint and lure a suspect into talking about sexual matters [44]. Ultimately, the use of the online predator sting to catch predators is limited and law enforcements have encountered legal challenges from defense lawyers representing the suspected predator captured in the online predator sting [50].

What Some Organizations are Doing
There are many organizations dedicated to stopping internet predation. Here are a few provided with a brief description of them.

Enough Is Enough (EIE): There mission is to protect children and families for the dangers of the internet that include, pornography and sexual predators [45].

Microsoft and the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (ICMEC): Microsoft in collaboration with ICMEC started a worldwide series of training programs for law-enforcement to investigate computer crimes against children [46]. This $1 million campaign concentrates on a global monitoring and oversight system, development and promotion of identification system for victims, and improvement in the prosecution and investigation of predators. They also wish to implement legislation that ensures consistency in different counties and promote the involvement of the private sector [8].

Stop Child Predators: This is a U.S. based organization that combines policy experts and community leaders with real-world experience to stop internet predators. They help parents of child victim to share their stories, law enforcement to find effective solutions, and decision makes to make strong policies. They have three main goals, firstly to promote and efficient and seamless integrated nationwide sex offender registry that can be accessed by the public. Secondly to enhance penalties under federal and state laws as currently many sexual offenders against children do not face imprisonment. Lastly, to represent victims, to protect their rights and provide them with a voice [52].

Disney: Disney has created a website containing games which children can participate in to help them understand how to protect themselves against internet predators.

Perverted Justice: An internet based group decicated to stop child predation. This group works with dateline MSNBC in the show “To Catch a Predator” stop apprehend certain offenders, by posing as children in chat rooms [29].

Cyber Angels: This is one of the oldest online safety educational programs in the world. It is an expansion of “The Guardian Angels” who help protect families and their children. It has recently combined with Time Warner to launch a cyber safety campaign [2].

Safe Surfin’ Foundation: This foundation provides parents, teachers, school administrators, law enforcement, community groups and librarians with information and resources necessary to keep children safe, and educate them on the dangers of the internet [6].

Wired Safety: A website which allow you to report cyber abuse such as cyber stalking, identity theft and child exploitation [24].

Dateline MSNBC:To Catch a Predator's Influence
Although very controversial, Dateline MSNBC’s “To Catch a Predator” has finally brought some attention to the major issues of child predation. To Catch a Predator is an undercover sting operation using hidden cameras and a decoy to lure potential sexual predators. In collaboration with the group mentioned before, Perverted Justice, they pose as minors to find potential predators. Chris Hansen hosts the show, can speaks with the victims of there actions once they have been detained. MSNBC rents a house, and has a decoy child come in, who is only there for a brief period before Chris Hansen appears and starts questioning the predators. In the third instalment of this show, they even teamed up with the local police force to arrest these individuals. [29] There have been may spin off of the original airing of “To Catch a Predator” such as To Catch a Con man, To Catch an ID Thief, To Catch a Thief, and there is even a Canadian version of the show. Dateline has suffered many controversy over their show, as it has been accused of trying to create news instead of reporting it. There have been many entrapment claims, as they use decoy’s who at times are the first ones to bring up the subject of sex. However this can be easily disapproved of the “reasonable person” test of entrapment. One segment aired though did happen to end in a man’s suicide with his sister later suing for $105 million law suit against MSNBC, bring in to question their ethics [13]. Below is a link to a video, where you can preview one such segment of the show

To Catch a Predator Clip 

Educating the Public
It may seem like it is “common sense” to avoid internet predators, but in many cases, many children are victims simply because they lack the necessary education from parents whom also lack the knowledge. Many parents lack conscious awareness of their children's Internet activities, as a result, the child's first line of defense against approaching Internet predators is gone [45]. That is, failure to notice their children's online activities is, essentially, a failure to notice suspicious behavior and reporting it to the police in order to prevent the attacks from occurring [44]. Even though it is impossible to completely protect your children from Internet predators as long as they are using the Internet, there are some ways to maximize the protection such as noticing the warning signs that indicate your children has been approached by an Internet predator, and the steps to take afterwards to prevent an actual attack. Victims tend to be between 12 to 15 years old with few friends and are desperately searching for love and affection on the Internet. As a result of this desperation, these children tend to be more willingly in talking with strangers [47]. As a result of the media consistently reporting the arrests of Internet predators, comments such as “they must be stupid” comes up among some parents [49]. Ultimately, this creates a sense of falsified security for parents which leads to a lack of securing their child's online activities. This, however, is incorrect and parents must always take full steps to prevent their children from becoming victims of an Internet predator. Parents are often recommended to teach their children not to talk to people they have not met in the real-world. Additionally, parents are often suggested that they should “spy” on their child, that is, parents should go through their child's list of Internet friends, the child's online profile, etc for the sake of their's child's safety. Other steps that can be taken:
 * Place the computer in an area where an adult is usually present. A child's online activities can be easily  influenced by the presence of an adult/parent.
 * Educate yourself about the Internet and computers, as well as the dangers of it. Parents need to be aware of how the Internet and computers work and its dangers in order to know what your children are doing on the Internet and what to protect them from.
 * Ask your children where they like to go on the Internet.
 * Set and enforce limits and rules on your child's use of the Internet.
 * Let your child know that you will check their online activity by knowing your child's accounts and passwords.
 * Use quality parental control software. Softwares that monitor your child's activity, filter certain traffic, etc.
 * Forbid the use of web-cams
 * Immediately create a new account (such as MSN, ICQ, AOL, etc.) and delete the old one if your child has been harassed or approached by an Internet predator.

Technology Parents can use to Protect their Children
The first line of defence against internet predators begins in the home. For this reason, many software’s have been developed to help parents protect their children using technology. Described below is a brief summary of a few available to keep any individual safe.

PC Sentinel Software: A software to monitor instant messages [48].

Watch Right: This is simple parental monitoring software for AOL and AIM. It will monitor and record instant messages, chat room sessions, email, websites visited and message board interactions. It utilizes the same technology used by the FBI, Department of Justice and Internet crime forces [1].

Internet Predator Tracker: This is a software program helping you to track down and gather information about criminal so you may turn it over to law enforcement. It gathers instant messages, images, websites, voice chats, full IP packet capture and saves the information in a database secured with a MD5 hash. It is an easy to use program from only one window [3].

AceSpy Software: Instantly e-mails internet chat conversation as they happen, and can forward all e-mail your child receives. Can also capture screen shots [7].

Anti-Grooming Engine: Has the ability to look at conversation patterns, typing speed, use of grammer and punctuation and aggressive language. It will compare an extract from an online conversation between normal youths to that of suspected internet predators. This will enable it to find differences in the communication [9].

Cyber Tipline: Is a way to report cases of child sexual abuse which includes child pornography, online luring of children for sexual acts, child molestation outside the family, sexual tourism of children, child victims of prosticution and unsolicited obsene material sent to a child. These reports can be made 24 hours a day, 7 dyas a week at the following website or number: www.cybertipline.com or 1-800-843-5678 [5].

Various Filtering Software: Allows you to block sites so children will not have access to them [5].

Various Monitoring software: Takes picture of the computer screen every few seconds, downloads and stores the information and e-mail it to a parents e-mail accounts [5].

Family E-mail: It may also be a good idea to have a family e-mail until your child is of a certain age. This will enable the parents to monitor the messages their children is recieveing.

Statistics

 * 88 million children and teens are estimated to be online and will visit one or more of the 40,000 plus chat rooms a child predator would visit [6]
 * Federal authorities believe there are around 500,000 to 750,000 predators online daily [53]
 * 77% of the targets for online predators are 14 and older [40]
 * 22% of targets for online predators are 10 to 13 [40]
 * 65% of teens and children receive sexual solicitations in chat rooms [6]
 * 24% receive sexual solicitations in instant messages [6]
 * 1 in 5 children received a sexual solicitation or approach in the last year (U.S.A) [53]
 * 1 in 33 children received an aggressive sexual solicitation (asked to meet, called them via phone, sent mail, money or gifts) [53]
 * 25% of children have been exposed to unwanted pornographic material online [40]
 * 62% of teens report their parents know little to nothing about their web activities [5]
 * 25% of youth who received a sexual solicitation told a parent [53]
 * 71% of parents stop monitoring their child’s use of the internet after they turn 14 [6]
 * 72% of internet related missing children are 15 yeas of age or older [6]
 * Only 1/3 households actively protect their children with filtering or blocking software [40]
 * 43% of children said they do not have rules about Internet use in their homes [53]
 * 1 in 4 US teen girls reported that they met strangers off the Internet [24]
 * 1 in 7 teen boys admitted they met strangers off the Internet [24]
 * 30 % of children consider meeting someone face-to-face who they only know through the internet [11]
 * 45% of children have been asked for personal information [11]
 * The FBI reports there is a “100 percent chance” of a child meeting a predator in a chat room [6]

Conclusion
During the past decade, a massive virtual world (the Internet) has arised from the reality we live in. However, the Internet has bought the child predators that had existed in reality into the virtual world. Thus, the child predators on the Internet are “Internet Predators”. Internet predators basically are trying to meet an underage person and overtime, predators try to convince the child/teenager into meeting up with them either through deception or the offering of incentives. That is, predators may try to act as a peer of child/teenager, or the predator offers money or gifts to the child/teenager. Nevertheless, predators are basically trying to meet up with the child/teenager in order to molest the child/teenager, or worse. By doing this, predators are fulfilling an implementation in fantasy role-playing with the ultimate objective of having a real-world sexual encounter with the child/teenager. As we see, society has enforced several methods of stopping and capturing these Internet predators. There are many law enforcement agencies around the world that used an “online sting” to attempt to capture these predators. That is, undercover police offers pretends to be a child/teenager in order to meet up with predators and arrest them. Similarly, “Dateline MSNBC: To Catch a Predator” has utilized the “online sting” on a reality T.V. show that actually shows the whole process, from luring the suspected predator to arresting the predator. Additionally, there are many organizations that dedicate themselves to catching Internet predators as well as preventing children and teenagers from becoming victims. Although law enforcements and organizations are making efforts to stop Internet predators, society must realize that the parents of children and teenagers are, in essence, the child's first line of defence against Internet predators. That is, there are many things that parents can do that can prevent their children(s) from becoming victimized. Parents can, for instance, monitor their children(s) Internet activities with the use of monitoring softwares. With stunning statistics regarding the percentage of children that are approached or being approached by Internet predators, society and law enforcements have used various methods (including the use of softwares) to stop predators in order to bring safety and justice to our society and children.The main issues is how to apprehend and stop these individuals from committing the crimes that they do. Presented where a few ways in which this is done, but we still believe society needs to do more, as our children, the future people of this world, have rights that need to be protected. As our world becomes more global, this will become an even greater issues. Hopefully more organizations will form, more "To Catch a Predator" ideas will surface, and our world may be safe once more.

Kristina Persaud
1. http://www.prweb.com/releases/2004/3/prweb111298.htm

2. http://www.cyberangels.org

3. http://www.internetpredatortracker.com/press.htm

4. http://www.canada.com/reginaleaderpost/news/story.html?k=76039&id=901c646c-ba84-4793-a711-1e7dd96e1c4c

5. http://telepicturesblog.warnerbros.com/tyrashow/2006/09/protect_your_child_from_intern.html

6. http://www.safesurfincentral.com/

7. http://www.pcsndreams.com/Pages/News_Archives.htm

8. http://www.ehow.com/how_2111304_teens-internetpredator-access-blogs-websites.html

9. http://www.itv.com/News/tonight/episodes/Tocatchapredator/default.html

10. http://tembam.wordpress.com/2008/02/18/to-catch-a-predator-dont-let-them-get-our-children/

11. http://ezinearticles.com/?Sexual-Child-Abuse-Prevention---To-Catch-A-Predator&id=500531

Mandeep Dhillon
12. http://www.ncdoj.com/DocumentStreamerClient?directory=WhatsNew/&file=Protecting%20Children%20from%20Predators%20%202.12.07.pdf

13. http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN2334094320070724

14. http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/3-29-2006-92193.asp

15. http://www.canadaeast.com/rss/article/216399

16. http://www.huntsvilleforester.com/HuntsvilleForester/article/38283

17. http://www.internet-security-products.com/Familyprotection.html

18. http://www.canadian-real-estate-for-sale.com/child_safety_tips.htm

19. http://www.levelbest.com/design/sites/enough/tipstoprotectkids.htm

20. http://www.crc-renfrewcounty.com/WebSafe%20-%20Guide%20for%20Youth.pdf

21. http://www.physorg.com/news122619731.html

22. http://www.bewebaware.ca/english/OnlinePredators.aspx

23. http://www.ugr.com/nl0805.html

Zuhair Janmohamed
24. http://www.wiredsafety.org/internet_predators/index.html

25. http://www.crimelibrary.com/criminal_mind/sexual_assault/internet_predators/1_index.html

26. http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/28029.html

27. http://www.thebramptonnews.com/articles/2185/1/Tips-To-Protect-Children-from-Internet-Predators/Page1.html

28. http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_19526.aspx

29. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6083442/

30. http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/3-29-2006-92193.asp

31. http://www.safety.com/articles/internet-predators.html

32. http://sexual-abuse.suite101.com/article.cfm/internet_sexual_predators

33. http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/02/fear_of_interne.html

Jaime Iredale
34. http://www.spectorsoft.com/products/SpectorPro_Windows/entry.asp?refer=12990

35. http://www.theage.com.au/news/web/how-to-catch-an-online-predator/2007/11/21/1195321793493.html

36. http://www.ehow.com/how_2054195_catch-online-predator.html

37. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11152602/

38. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Catch_a_Predator

39. http://predators.onlinesecurityauthority.com/?p=39

40. http://www.sentrypc.com/statistics.htm

41. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3949042/

42. http://www.bewebaware.ca/english/OnlinePredators.aspx

43. http://www.cfc-efc.ca/docs/mnet/00001239.htm

Andy Lo
44. http://www.surfnetkids.com/safety/how_police_fight_internet_predators-18526.htm

45. http://www.enough.org/

46. http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2004/apr04/04-22icmec.mspx

47. http://www.talewins.com/protectyourself/internetpredators.htm

48. http://www.pcsentinelsoftware.com/how-internet-predators-select-their-victims.htm

49. http://www.awarenesstech.com/Consumer/Articles/internet-predators.html

50. http://www.webpages.charter.net/caselaw4cops/articles/predator.htm

51. http://www.sdcda.org/protecting/children_parents.php

52. http://www.stopchildpredators.org/about/

53. http://www.yellodyno.com/Statistics/statistics_Internet_predators.html

54. http://www.ag.state.oh.us/citizen/isafety/techniques.asp?go=sstl