Caught in the Web attract a large crowd
By Stephanie Taylor
April 15, 2010
Flamborough Review, Ontario
Child sexual exploitation was the focus last Saturday at the School Sisters of Notre Dame Motherhouse, which hosted 'Caught in the Web,' a conference featuring guest speaker and award-winning author and journalist Julian Sher.
Sher spoke to an audience of about 150 people about the issues of trafficking child sexual abuse images on the Internet.
The author, whose previous works include books about gangs and organized crime, as well as a high-profile book on the Steven Truscott murder case that helped secure Truscott's acquittal, spoke about his latest book, One Child at a Time, which focuses on the devastating tragedy and pain that child sexual abuse images cause.
"I've always been interested in investigative journalism, in the issues of power and abuse of power, and nobody is more powerless than children who are victims," said Sher. "I had also done a few books on organized crime and when I found out that the police had set up special squads to try and rescue kids who were being victims of predators online, that became a natural subject." He went on to spend time with FBI agents and police officers around North America who encouraged him to take an in-depth look at this international crime.
One Child at a Time took about two years to complete. Sher routinely speaks at conferences because he believes it's important to relay the message that the only way to stop the trafficking of sexual abuse images is to raise parental and child awareness and promote community involvement.
"The police are the first to say, this is not an issue that the police are going to handle by themselves," he explained. "Parents have to school their children in basic Internet safety just like we street-proof them, and most parents are frightened about that or don't know how to do that."
Sher's seminar made the distinction between the term pornography and child abuse images. Often referred to as "child pornography" or "kiddy-porn," these terms are misnomers. He contended that pornography, whether morally for or against, is a form of eroticism or exploitation, but it is a legal and consensual act, usually between professional actors. On the other hand, child sexual abuse images are pictures of a crime scene.
"The trafficking of child sexual abuse images is the crime of the 21st century and it is due to the level of our technology," said Sher.
Sher is the first to admit that the Internet has opened up vast possibilities and positive aspects, but it has also opened up a world to online predators, who no longer have to roam playgrounds speaking of lost puppies or offering candy. "The world's largest playground is just a mouse click away," he noted.
There are tens of thousands of child abuse images across the World Wide Web and the trafficking of them is a $20-billion business.
Out of 16,000 images that were analyzed, it was found that 35 per cent involved serious assault with 82 per cent of the victims being under 12 years old, and 77 per cent being under the age of eight.
One in seven children will encounter unwanted sexual material on the Internet.
In 2002, it was released that 200 children had been identified and rescued by police organizations from the analyzing of sexual abuse images. The number rose to 500 in 2005 and 1,100 in 2007. As of 2010 there are still nine million children who have not been identified.
Sher referred to this relatively new crime as the "perfect storm:" the first wave came during the Internet's younger years. One person would send an image to another, using the Internet as a trading post. The second wave came between 1999 and 2001, when the Internet offered a larger bandwidth, higher speeds and more storage. At this stage it became a playground for predators and a 'school of abuse' where predators could find each other, correspond and teach one another how to exchange images more safely.
In the third wave the Internet lost its passive role, and became a trap with its endless chat rooms, Facebook, MySpace and technologies such as webcams that entice people to share personal images and information. "It may be one web cam, but there are countless peeping Toms," noted one slide in Sher's presentation.
"Teenagers are extremely irresponsible because they feel it's 'their' cellphone and it's 'their' computer, but they are doing things that they would never do in a park or a public street that they feel quite willing to do on the Internet," he explained.
Sher's presentation shattered the myth that predators are all "dirty old men." Although females make up the majority of victims of such crimes, women are increasingly taking a more active role in perpetrating, especially as enablers. Most predators are not strangers; up to 90 per cent of all victims know their attacker. Shockingly, 45 per cent of arrested molesters were parents of the victims or other family members. Predators are also not "low-life scum," said Sher, as 73 per cent are employed with 27 per cent making over $50,000 a year and 10 per cent over $80,000 annually.
Finally, Sher explained that the images represent more than just looking at pictures on a screen. He emphasized that the children in the images are someone's children and are being abused. They are crime scene photos and also provide the fuel for certain predators with abusive tendencies to go further. According to a U.S. study, 35 to 40 percent of people arrested for possessing child sexual abuse images had also had issues with hands-on abuse.
The three As
The Internet, said Sher, has provided perpetrators the three A's: anonymity, access and acceptance.
As daunting and overwhelming as the problem is, many things are being done to fight this international problem.
Police around the world have formed special task forces and the FBI has formed the Innocent Images National Initiative as part of their Cyber Crimes Program. Police often go undercover to track and lure predators, turning the hunters into the hunted.
Sher noted that police are also using technology to their advantage, to analyze images to identify the victims or locate where the abusive images were taken. Something as small as a reflection in a mirror, or a magnet on a refrigerator could provide a valuable clue.
Every image on the web leaves behind a digital footprint. Although seemingly easy to delete, as soon as a photo is altered in any way it creates a new copy and will not be detected by the system that originally deleted it.
Sher also explored the vast difference in punishments that these crimes receive. In many countries it is not a crime to traffic child sexual abuse images.
Ninety-five out of 184 countries do not have any laws on such crimes. In 136 countries, possession of the images is not a crime. Also, the age of consent can be quite different; in Canada it is 16 years old, but in Spain and Japan it is 13 years old.
Another startling statistic: out of 1,554 convicted sex offenders who applied for pardon over the last two years, only 41 were rejected. Everyone else was pardoned and had their records wiped clean.
In Canada, the only province that has made it law to report finding images of child sexual abuse on the web is Manitoba.
There are places to report seeing images, such as www.cybertip.ca, which is run by Cleanfeed Canada, an undertaking of the Canadian Coalition against Internet Child Exploitation.
Sher stressed that the number one line of defence is empowering children and parents. Parents will tell their children that it's too late to go play in the park, he pointed out, but will let them go to the basement and log on to the biggest playground there is while not knowing what they are looking at or who they are talking to.
Sher explained that setting ground rules is crucial: have the computer in a public place, children must ask a parent before they give anyone any information online, they should never meet anyone they have encountered online and they should only be allowed to chat with people they know.
Teenagers present another range of issues. Since the teen years are often sexually explorative, many will use the Internet to facilitate this growing curiosity.
Sher revealed that three out of 10, teens use their real name and address online, and a startling new trend (10 per cent) of indecent images are taken by the victims themselves.
Often, teenagers don't foresee the repercussions of such behaviors or understand that once an image is on the Internet, it is there forever.
Finally, Sher noted that people must realize that there is no virtual world versus real world - it's all real and should be treated as such.