Act Against Injustice

Part Two - Jan 24th, 2011

Welcome to part-2

In this week’s session we are going to focus completely on Internet grooming; how to prevent your child from falling prey and what you can do as a parent to reduce the risk.

Due to the scope of this series we will not blind nor confuse you with facts and figures and research, but we will stress what the majority thinking is in these areas:

Part-1 (last week) of the series

 

What is an Online Grooming?

The online groomer is a person who has initiated online contact with a child with the intention of establishing a sexual relationship involving cyber sex or physical sex.

Grooming can take place in any setting where a relationship is formed, such as leisure, music, sports and religious activities, or in internet chatrooms. Communication begun in an internet chatroom can move very quickly to mobile phones.

The extent of children being targeted online for sexual purposes is not known exactly, and is difficult to evaluate. However, there have been some surveys of children’s experience online, and through the general theme of these conclusions they are more than adequate to establish that the issue of online grooming is serious enough to demand attention.

 

What are the Online Grooming Techniques groomers use?

The basic technique for the ‘perpetrator’ is to hang around in a public Internet Chat Room, on the lookout for a child that seems ‘vulnerable’. Ruben Rodriquez, director of the US NCMEC’s (National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children) Exploited Child Unit, explains “Predators like to go after kids who tend to express agreement in Chat Rooms but not say a lot because they know these kids are vulnerable”, children that would perhaps really value attention, understanding and friendship. When they find such a child they invite them into a private area of the Chat Room to get to know them better. Next in the grooming sequence comes private chat via an instant messaging service, and then e-mail, phone conversations (often on mobile phones) and finally a face-to-face meeting.

 

In February 2000, a thirty-three-year-old man made contact with a twelve-year-old girl in a teenage Internet chatroom. This first contact in a chatroom led to emails every day over a two-month period and then to regular conversations on a mobile phone. In this way the girl was groomed from this initial chatroom contact to the point where she actually met the man offline and to the point where she was sexually assaulted.

 

The grooming process can go on for weeks and months, as it may take this long for the child to feel truly comfortable. The patience of the predator may also be explained partly by the fact that it is not uncommon for them to be grooming several children at the same time. In this way, even if a child begins to feel uncomfortable and breaks off the relationship there are others lined up. It is in this context that the Internet has been called the ‘schoolyard of the 21^st Century’.

Chat Rooms can afford the predator invisible access to children from a safe distance, allowing contact to be made even while the child is using the Internet in the secure surroundings of their own home, even their own bedroom. Once contact has been established the grooming process can proceed through private chatroom, via e-mail and instant messages, and then even via mobile phone.

It has been known for a long time that paedophiles court children, and offline cases involve children who are or who become close to the paedophiles. In the online world it is unquestionably easier for paedophiles to contact children and to build up that contact in a very intense manner. Offline predators, just like the online ones, target vulnerable children, and even “claim a special ability to identify vulnerable children, to use that vulnerability to sexually use a child”. The online situation gives the paedophile the possibility of daily contact with a child, an amount of contact that would otherwise be impossible unless the paedophile was family or a care worker.

The online situation allows the paedophile the opportunity to manipulate the emotions of a young child over a long period of time to the point that they feel safe to have a face-to-face offline meeting.

 

How is grooming different online?

• Online grooming can be faster as online technologies speed up communication (especially emailing and texting), groomers have many more opportunities to interact with their victims.

• Groomers can combine their efforts to gain more information about their victims with searches of online databases, such as online phone books, profile searchers etc.

• Often victims of online grooming do not realise that the groomer already knows a lot of personal information about them that they found elsewhere online.

• Groomers can use online technologies such as images (pictures), videos, texts, email, voice transmission, viruses and Trojan programs to aid them in the grooming and abusing processes.

• It is very easy for an online groomer to mask their real identity, especially their age and gender.

• Online grooming is usually a private interaction between the groomer and their victims, and is usually very secretive and hidden from other people. For example, if the groomer has the victim’s mobile phone number they can easily communicate with the victim from a distance, with no one else ever seeing the victim and the groomer together.

• Online grooming does not have to adhere to the usual limitations of time and access. Victims can be groomed at all hours of the day and night, at home and at school. For lonely or isolated young people this perceived company/friendship might be very attractive.

• Online grooming allows groomers to be very specific and selective in the kind of person they want as a victim. For example, a groomer can select a victim by the way they look, or by their age, from a vast number of potential victims.

Online groomers can groom a number of victims at the same time. In addition, if the victim rejects their advances, they can ‘disappear’, change their identity and reappear as ‘someone else’, and approach the same victim, but this time wiser to what that victim’s limits and preferences are.

 

How do groomers find online victims?

• Groomers often search for victims in chatrooms, especially those ‘chats’ that are specifically focused around young people’s interests (e.g. a teen chatroom, gaming forum, or music-themed chatroom).

• Groomers might pretend to be younger than they actually are, or of a different gender, especially if they want their victims to think that they might be a good potential friend or girl/boy friend. However, many groomers do not lie about their real age or gender at all, and still manage to find victims.

• Groomers might manipulate victims to contact them in the first instance. This can sometimes make them look more innocent and trustworthy, and the victim as being more complicit in the grooming, for example:

‘any girls out there who can tell me where to buy pink lip-gloss cheap?’

• Groomers might have online profiles on dating sites and other sites where people meet each other (e.g. penpal sites, newsgroups, gaming sites etc). These might be real or fictitious. Photos of other people can be easily used in place of their own.

• Groomers can hunt for potential victims by looking through personal websites. Examples of such sites include: blogs (online diaries), pictures, and sites that ‘give out’ personal information and pictures about young people, and some school and sporting club websites

• People with an interest in grooming victims online sometimes work together with other groomers and sex-offenders to help each other find and groom victims.

Groomers often move between different cyber-technologies as they position themselves for abuse. For example, they might select a victim from a picture and profile they found online from a school website. They then might meet the victim in an open chatroom and then go into a private chatroom, where they start exchanging emails, messages, pictures and videos. After this, they might even send the victim a prepaid mobile phone that they can keep in secret to talk with the groomer.

 

What are the Statistics?

CEOP suggests that 25% of children and young people have met offline someone that they first contacted online

“it is consistently apparent from the reports that children and young people have often placed themselves at risk online by engaging in risky, cyber sexual behaviour that may have incited, catalysed or otherwise facilitated the resulting abuse scenario” (CEOP, 2007 p. 12).

34% of online chatters (22% of all9- to 16-year-olds) have been invited to a face to face meeting with someone they met online.

84% of those who make friends online (49% of all teens) gave out their email address while 73% sent their picture,60% phone number and 23%their home/postal address

One third of children and young people report having received unwanted sexual (31%) or nasty comments (33%) via email, chat, instant messaging or text messaging.

4 in 10 are unaware of the risks of meeting online contacts offline. What these studies show is that, although there may be awareness of the potential dangers of associating with strangers “met” online, many young people still do so.

The latest figures from Beat bullying reveal that nearly one-in-three 11-16 year olds has been deliberately targeted, threatened or humiliated by an individual or group through the use of mobile phones or the internet.

Nearly three out of 10 (28%) of parents don't know or are not sure if their teens talk to strangers online.

It can be seen that both parents and children are unaware of the dangers, the knowledge of the precautions to take and what to do, so let’s analyse what the problem is and how we as parents and children can be effective in reducing the danger ...If you are unsure of any terms we describe here please see this link as Internet terms are explained linked here

 

What can Parents do to improve security?

(for more details on what we can specifically recommend to use please feel free to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ).

Secretly monitor email, install and monitor a Keystroke logger

Internet filter, filter sites by domain name and or keywords

Pornsite blocker

View all instant message conversations, on both sides

Webwatcher UK is noted as a good Monitoring and Child protection software

Internet terms

 

Below are some of our suggestions to help you to protect your family from online dangers

• Stay With Your Kids While They Spend Time On The Internet

• Make sure that you stay with your children while they are using Internet. Even if you are busy you can certainly keep a casual eye on what they are doing at the very least.

• You can view their browsing history to check the web sites they have visited.

• You can also ensure that your kids do not get involved in activities such as sending emails to, and chatting with, strangers.

• Educate Your Children About Online Dangers

 

It is necessary to educate your kids about all the risks and dangers involved with the Internet. Once they get to know such facts, they will be more vigilant and careful. Make them clear of the sites they should visit and the types of sites which are not meant for them. Do not frighten them but set limits to their Internet usage so that you can keep things under control.

• Create Separate User Accounts To Keep Your Data Safe

• Recent operating systems, such as Windows 7, allow you to create individual accounts for all the users of the computer onto which they are installed.

• You can opt to create separate accounts for your kids, which is one of the ways to keep your files and data protected from the mischievous activities of your children!

• If you do not prefer to create separate accounts then it is advisable not to use add-ons which are meant to remember passwords and other important information (which can be accidentally used) leading to serious loss.

There is a wise saying that “Prevention is always better than cure.”

• Make sure that you use updated antivirus programs featuring utilities such as firewalls to ensure the safety of the data stored in your computer.

• You can also use kid browsers which ensure the safety of your files while your kids are accessing Internet or you can edit the options of your default browser to ban the web sites which you feel would be harmful to your child.

Here is how - Tools>Internet Options>Content>Click on ENABLE under Content Advisor.

The powers that be have understood the need for cyber security and so they have come forward to offer their services to ensure your kids’ protection whilst they are using the Internet by blocking the sites that are not meant or suited for them.

• Open Communication Is Key

• If possible, set up your computer in a place where you can easily keep an eye on who is using it and what they are doing with it.

• This will surely make your children think before they do anything wrong on the computer.

Having a flexible relationship with your family members is beneficial in all aspects of life – such a relationship will make your children come to you and tell about the things they have seen and done on the Internet. This kind of relationship not only enhances the cyber security of your family but also develops a strong bond amongst yourselves, helping you grow and stay safe and happy as a family.

Internet security needs to be implemented on all the computers in your house. This is because kids can use other computers to enter on certain unwanted websites. You can use your Internet browser to adjust the security and private settings. If you want to protect your children, you should block websites that you want your kids to avoid. If you have teenagers, they might be able to unblock these websites, so this solution may not work for them.

Another option for you would be filtering the content of websites. This can be easily done by using a router that allows the content filter. This way you can create a password that should not be easy to find.

Another thing you can do is setting limits you discuss with your children. This may not be the best idea because it is a known fact that children usually do the contrary due to their curiosity.

However, you may try to limit the time your kids use the Internet, YouTube and other websites. Blocking some websites is a good idea. Also, if your children are using social networks, you should always be friends with them on those networks. This way you may get to know their friends and recognize possible threats. Get involved and join their social networks. However, this has to be done in a non invasive way so that your children do not feel you are controlling them.

 

Social networking sites

The phenomenal rise in social networking sites has been much documented and Facebook, Bebo and MySpace are all well-known for places where young people “congregate”. There is some research on the potential risks and potential harm of these sites now available.

The major concern, documented most in the United States, is the fact that young people give away significant amounts of personal information online (see for example, Lenhart and Madden as part of the Pew Internet and American Life Project (2007)19).This is despite the fact that one can setone’s online profile so that only “invited” visitors might see it. In the Anchor Watch Your Space survey in Ireland, 82.5% of the sample of 10- to20-year-olds use social networking sites, while 71% of the respondents have not set their profiles to private.

 

Mobile, pc and gaming advice to Children

Internet content delivered by mobile

The increasing technological possibilities of receiving Internet content by telephone increases concerns of privacy (the mobile is a very private and personal instrument for young people) and mobility (it is more difficult to track what is being viewed/used). Due to financial constraints, young people use the mobile telephone for Internet access relatively little but this is likely to change and policy-makers should be aware of this. In its report following its consultation on child safety and mobile phone services the European Union reports these concerns, mentioned by child safety organisations, and cites examples:

“One child safety association mentions that ‘the private and personal nature of the device has meant that it has featured in most, if not all, of the grooming cases in the UK as the technology used in the “last phase” of the grooming process’.

The same association states ‘there have been cases where the predator has sent the child credits for their phone (or indeed a handset itself ) in order to maintain personal and secret communication.’”

• Keep your phone with you at all times. If you are worried about someone taking it at school or if you are out, leave it at home.

• Only give your mobile number to your friends and people that you trust.

• Don't lend your phone to someone you don't know or trust, or put it in a place where other people could get hold of it.

Most phones allow you to lock your phone with a PIN code. If you don't have the code you can't unlock it, so if anyone steals your phone they won't be able to use it.

• If someone is pressuring you into giving them your number, tell someone about it such as a teacher or a parent.

• If you have Bluetooth on your phone, keep this switched off when you are not using it.

 

What can I do if someone is bullying or grooming me through my mobile?

It's now quite easy for mobile phone companies to trace the identity of anyone who is sending nasty or abusive text messages. If you are being bullied and receiving nasty or threatening language on your mobile tell an adult, like a parent or teacher, who can help you put a stop to this. All UK mobile companies are used to dealing with nuisance calls and have people you can call who can help you deal with this.

Don't reply to any nasty messages you receive.

• Keep the messages that you have been sent so you can show someone.

• Don't answer any calls that are from a withheld number, or from a number you don't know.

• Change your mobile number and only give your new number out to close friends.

If the problem is serious, tell the Police.

Mobile phone operators can't bar a particular number from contacting another phone, but you can do this on some handsets. Check your phone handbook to see if yours can. They can only take action about the bully's account, such as blocking it, if the police are involved.

• Only give your mobile number out to people you already know and trust

• Meeting someone you have only been in touch with online can be dangerous

• Only give your mobile number out to people you already know and trust.

• Meeting someone you have only been in touch with online can be dangerous

• Respect your friends’ privacy and don’t give out their numbers without their permission.

• Learn how to block other users...

• Get your friends’ permission before taking pictures of them

• Look after each other and think about what you send to people.

• Never reply to text messages from people you don’t know

 

Viruses can damage your computer, even destroy it, so...

Be suspicious of all files you receive on IM, and Don’t click on a link you received but didn’t ask for.

 

Online Gaming

There is no difference between chatting on a gaming site and on a chat site

• Be careful who you trust online

• Meeting someone you have only been in touch with online can be dangerous.

• Stay in charge in chat. Keep your personal information secret in the online game, in the profile and in chat (name, address, telephone number, mobile number, private email address, picture), even if people ask for this.

• Look after each other. Don’t give out your friend’s personal information online

• Think about your username or ‘handle’. Use a nickname, not your real name,

• Learn how to block another player

• You can always kick someone out of the game if they are making you feel uncomfortable.

• If there is voice chat on the game, sometimes you can disguise your voice by using a voice mask

 

But be careful using voice chat. It may feel like you are talking over the phone, but remember that you are chatting to a stranger..

• Learn how to report another user.

• Learn how to keep a record

 

We are witnessing the emergence of a new kind of crime which contains aspects of the offline ‘experience’ but combined with the new technology there is the opportunity for continuous remote contact up to the point of an offline meeting for sexual purposes. There have been numerous cases of this occurring in the USA. Now this new kind of crime is appearing in the UK, and we can also see examples appearing in other countries such as Australia and Norway. It seems clear that this new type of crime is not going to go away, at least not on its own. We have to protect our children from dangers online as we would in the street. We have to be vigilant and invest in some time technically in learning to help ourselves and our children understand the possible dangers of the internet and its associates.

...Please join us next week as will continue the Act Against Injustice series on grooming in the final part - 3