Another major form of commercial sexual exploitation of children is abuse and exploitation in the travel and tourism industries. This is also commonly referred to as “child sex tourism” and may be described as: “…the commercial sexual exploitation of children by men or women who travel from one place to another, usually from a richer country to one that is less developed, and there engage in sexual acts with children, defined as anyone under the age of 18. Child sex tourism takes various forms, but generally it is about adult men who, in the course of travelling away from home, pay in cash or kind for sex with children.”54 Child sex tourists may be either “preferential” abusers, who deliberately seek out children for sex, or “situational” abusers, who take advantage of an opportunity or a feeling of anonymity afforded by travelling.55 A more detailed description of offender profiles is contained in chapter III (Combating the problem). Cyberenticement, solicitation and online grooming The terms “cyberenticement”, “solicitation” and “online grooming” are commonly used collectively or interchangeably to describe communications made by adults through the use of ICTs for the purpose of sexually abusing or exploiting minors. In the United States, for example, many states have adopted legislation related to cyberenticement that seeks to criminalize attempts at knowingly soliciting a minor to engage in sexual activity by communicating through the Internet. Such statutes “come in a variety of forms but generally punish any person who (1) uses a computer or similar device (2) to contact a person whom he knows or believes to be a minor (3) to solicit, encourage, entice, or lure him or her (4) for the Subgroup Against the Sexual Exploitaiton of Children, NGO Group for the Convention of the Right of the Child, 2005. Pp. 18-19. 55 ECPAT. End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes. Available at: http:// www.ecpat.net/faqs#child-sex-tourism; see also Kinnear, K. L., 2007. Childhood Sexual Abuse (2nd ed.). P.7. 54 purposes of engaging in sexual activity in violation of state laws.”56 Within the European Union, “solicitation of children for sexual purposes” refers to the intentional proposal, through information and communication technologies, by an adult, to meet a child who has not reached the age of majority under domestic law, for the purpose of committing sexual abuse or producing child pornography where this proposal has been followed by material acts leading to such a meeting.57 Sexual solicitation may also refer to “requests [to a child] to engage in sexual activities or sexual talk or give personal sexual information that are unwanted or, whether wanted or not, made by an adult.”58 “Grooming” can be considered as conduct that takes place as part of cyberenticement or prior to solicitation. It refers to a series of actions that facilitate cyberenticement or solicitation deliberately undertaken with the aim of befriending and establishing an emotional connection with and gaining the trust of a child, in order to lower the child's inhibitions in preparation for sexual activity with the child.59 The preparation element of the conduct can be described as “a process by which a person prepares a child, significant adults and the environment for the abuse of this child. Specific goals include gaining access to the child, gaining the child’s compliance and maintaining the child’s secrecy to avoid disclosure.”60 Grooming “may take minutes, hours, days or months, depending on the goals and needs of the abuser and reactions of the young person.”61 56 Sorenson Stanger, J., 2005. “Salvaging States’ Rights To Protect Children from Internet Predation: State Power To Regulate Internet Activity Under the Dormant Commerce Clause”, Birmingham Young University Law Review, 2005:191. Available at: http://digitalcommons.law.byu.edu/lawreview/vol2005/iss1/4 57 Art. 6, Directive 2011/92/EU of the European Parliament and the Council of 13 December 2011 on combating the sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children and child pornography, and replacing Council Framework Decision 2004/68/JHA [L 335/1 2011]. See also article 23 Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse. 58 Quayle, E., et al. In: Ainsaar, M., Lööf, L. (eds.). P. 12. 59 Gillespie, A., 2002. “Child protection on the Internet challenges for criminal law”, Child and Family Law Quarterly, 14:411. 60 Quayle, E., et al. In: Ainsaar, M., Lööf, L. (eds.). P. 15. 61 UNICEF, 2011. P.2. I. Identifying and describing the problem  11