[LM_NET] New report on online predators

[Nancy Willard <nwillard@CSRIU.ORG>]

Hi all,

There is an important new report out about online predators. You can find
the report and a press release here: http://www.unh.edu/ccrc/

Below is material from the web site. But I am going to focus strongly on one
piece of data:  Arrests of online predators in 2006 constituted about 1
percent of all arrests for sex crimes committed against children and youth.

Compare this to a statement on the Texas Attorney General site: The
proliferation of child predators using the Internet to target young victims
has become a national crisis. A study shows one in seven children will be
solicited for sex online in the next year. Texas Attorney General

This is a clear demonstration of the phenomenon of techno-panic - a
heightened level of concern about the use of contemporary technologies by
young people that is disproportionate to the empirical data on the actual
degree of risk. We must neither ignore nor over-exaggerate the risks.


Here from the web site:

A new CCRC study finds dramatic growth nationwide in arrests of online
predators who solicited law enforcement investigators posing online as
juveniles, the numbers nearly quintupling from 644 in 2000 to 3,100 in 2006.

During the same period, arrests of individuals for soliciting juveniles
themselves grew a modest 21 percent, from an estimated 508 arrests in 2000
to an estimated 615 in 2006, at a time when use of the Internet by youth was
growing from 73 percent to 93 percent.

Other results of this study include:

    * During the same period that online predator arrests were increasing,
overall sex offenses against children and adolescents were declining, as
were overall arrests for such crimes.

    * Arrests of online predators in 2006 constituted about 1 percent of all
arrests for sex crimes committed against children and youth.

    * Although arrests of online predators are increasing, especially
arrests for soliciting undercover law enforcement, the facts do not suggest
that the Internet is facilitating an epidemic of sex crimes against youth.
Rather, increasing arrests for online predation probably reflect increasing
rates of youth Internet use, a migration of crime from offline to online
venues and the growth of law enforcement activity against online crimes.

    * The nature of crimes in which online predators used the Internet to
meet and victimize youth changed little between 2000 and 2006, despite the
advent of social networking sites. Victims were adolescents, not younger
children. Most offenders were open about their sexual motives in their
online communications with youth. Few crimes (5 percent) involved violence.

    * There was no evidence that online predators were stalking or abducting
unsuspecting victims based on information they posted at social networking
sites.


It is very important also to put the increase of 508 to 615 into
perspective. In 2000, 73% of US youth were online. In 2006, 95% of US youth
were online. I do not know the total number of young people in the US. But
the number who have gotten hooked up with online sexual predators is
exceptionally small.

On the other hand, some of those family and acquaintance abusers - the other
offenders who we really need to focus on - they are now using imaging
devices to create child porn.

In my opinion, we need a shift in our law enforcement priorities.

Nancy
-- 
Nancy Willard, M.S., J.D.
Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use
http://csriu.org
http://cyberbully.org
http://cyber-safe-kids.com
http://csriu.wordpress.com
nwillard@csriu.org

Cyberbullying and Cyberthreats: Responding to the Challenge of Online Social
Aggression, Threats, and Distress (Research Press)

Cyber-Safe Kids, Cyber-Savvy Teens: Helping Young People Learn to Use the
Internet Safely and Responsibly (Jossey-Bass)

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