E/CN.15/2014/CRP.1 Chapter Three: Evaluating the problem The advent of ICTs has led to a continuum of effects on the abuse and exploitation of children. Some conduct facilitated by ICT, particularly crimes involving contact sexual abuse, shares many features and similarities with forms of non-technology facilitated abuse and exploitation, and can be countered with similar methods. In some instances, the effect of technology on an existing form of abuse and exploitation is so transformational, however, that it must be prevented and countered in new ways. In a few cases, the use of new information and communication technologies has given rise to completely new forms of child abuse and exploitation. The use of ICTs in the commission of offences can increase levels of harm to victims, in particular by facilitating the layering and intertwining of offences such that multiple forms of abuse and exploitation facilitated by technology can take place simultaneously or be committed against the same victim over time. The Council of Europe notes, for example, that: “[n]one of these new technologies are in and of themselves harmful” but they – inadvertently – provide criminals with “new, efficient, and often anonymous” ways and means of exploiting children.76 This chapter evaluates the effects of ICTs on common forms of child abuse and exploitation. These include increased access to victims and to child sexual abuse material; increased profits obtained by criminal enterprises; reduced risk of identification and prosecution of perpetrators; increased potential levels of harm for victims; and provision of social affirmation for offenders. New forms of child abuse and exploitation enabled by ICTs are also discussed, including madeto-order child sexual abuse material; user-generated and self-generated content including sexting; and the broadcasting of live sex abuse. In addition, this chapter provides a brief overview of the main risk factors for victims as well as possible offender profiles. With regard to the identification of potential victims, the relevant factors discussed include gender and sexual orientation; prior abuse and family dysfunction; poverty and migration; age; online behaviour; and social isolation. With regard to offender profiling, general profiles and motivations of offenders, as well as common offender characteristics, are discussed, including gender; age; other demographic characteristics; and technological sophistication. Finally, this chapter briefly describes organized groups of offenders and the role of organized criminal networks in child abuse and exploitation. Effects of ICT on common existing forms of child abuse and exploitation Enhanced access to victims and to child sexual abuse material Offenders are able to gain easier access to larger and new populations of children through the use of online forums, e-mail, social networks and other Internet-based communication tools. Offenders may, for example, simultaneously have up to 200 “friends” or more with whom they are at different stages of grooming.77 With such a large pool of potential victims, offenders can take calculated risks by initiating sexual conversations with children and gauging their reaction.78 Offenders may then focus on those children that respond favourably, or at least remain engaged, thus enabling them to allocate their time to higher probability targets. Analysis from Statistics Canada suggests that following the addition of new child luring through the Internet offences in the Canadian Criminal Code in 2002, the number of incidents reported to the police increased. The number of police-reported child luring incidents in 2006 was 1.5 times greater than in 2005, and rose another 31 per cent in 2007.79 Whilst this may be indicative of a genuine underlying increase in such acts, police-recorded crime statistics are a function of both the number of actual acts, as well as awareness of the criminal nature of the act, and willingness to report. Whilst Statistics Canada notes that “[i]t is difficult to know to what extent the growth in child luring offences reported to police may be related to increased efforts to raise public awareness or to other factors, such as advances in police efforts to capture online predators, or to an increase in the __________________ 76 77 78 79 Council of Europe, 2003. Group of Specialists on the Impact of the Use of New Information Technologies on Trafficking in Human Beings for the Purpose of Sexual Exploitation [EG-S-NT (2002) 9 rev.]. Available at http://www.coe.int/t/dghl/monitoring/trafficking/docs/activities/EGSNT2002-9rev_en.asp. Webster, S. et al, 2010. Scoping Report: European Online Grooming Project. Pp. 13-14. Choo, K. R., 2009, Online Child Grooming: A Literature Review on the Misuse of Social Networking Sites for Grooming Children for Sexual Offences. Australian Institute of Criminology. Pp. 11-16. Statistics Canada, 2009. Child Luring Through the Internet. V.14-03040 15