Pedophilia: pandemic in the network. For grooming and sexual abuse of children and adolescents on digital platforms, especially social networks.
Gloria Sánchez Aguilar. Peninsula 360 Press [P360P].
The following information is the result of research conducted by a team of journalists, members of the Diploma in Data Journalism and Investigative Techniques -focused on organized crime-, which was given by the Carlos Septién García School of Journalism in Mexico City.
Child exploitation is a form of organized crime that profits from the recruitment and sexual abuse of children and adolescents on various digital platforms, especially social networks.
Often, the person behind a profile is not a person, but an "impressive child pornography" network. It all starts by asking for a photograph of the child to blackmail the family.
"If you don't give me a certain amount of money, I'll show the photo or do something to your child," said María Isabel Christensen, head of Research and Prevention at the NGO Mamá en Línea, an organization based in Argentina, dedicated to prevention and training to combat drug trafficking. grooming and online bullying.
The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the systemic economic and social inequalities that are among the underlying causes of the crime of trafficking in persons.
The risk of being a victim of these crimes increases just as much for teens who begin to practice sexting -The practice of sending messages, photos or videos with erotic and personal sexual content via mobile phone - a practice that continues to grow during the quarantine period.
The sale of child abuse and exploitation material makes a lot of money, so much so that it is one of the three most lucrative activities for criminal organizations after drugs and arms trafficking.
How do pornography groups operate?
These organizations and groups also create the didactics of getting what each consumer wants, according to their tastes: the selection of a victim by age, characteristic, skin tone, etc., gives rise to other crimes such as human trafficking and kidnapping.
One of the main strategies of perpetrators and criminal organizations is to simulate an identity different from their own. Usually, they pretend to have the same age, tastes and preferences as the victims they have selected. Even an innocent photo next to a door, park or any location gives them enough material to study in detail their victim, who naively continues to upload material ignoring the intentions behind every sexual predator surfing the Internet.
"The moment the mother or father is distracted, the pedophile captures the attention of that child, attracts him and that's when they take them. What does he do first? He sits in front of the computer and knows where to find minors on social networks like Facebook, Instagram or the most popular among young people. He searches for minors or goes to the profiles that are open, checks the pictures. It may be the profile of an adult. Most of them have their children in the profiles, there he goes looking and realizes that he has a daughter, for example. So he searches and selects information about when he tagged her, he already has a piece of information. In another photograph, she finds the girl celebrating her birthday, she has another piece of information, which is her age. Then, the aunt uploads another photo of the girl leaving school and adds another piece of information and she already knows the school she goes to. Once she has the information and the photographs, she creates a profile of another girl that relates her to that girl and she already has her possible victim and that's when she starts to manipulate her to contact her: "Hello, what's your name", and ask her questions to build trust," explained María Isabel.
Recruitment or the search for potential victims has been facilitated, among other things, because both children and adolescents have Internet classes that lead them to be connected to a type of messaging, which allows social interaction - chat rooms, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, etc. -.
"That's where the criminals go to try to recruit, to seduce. The common criterion is that they are usually kids who are looking for attention. Some are not well at home, they have no communication with their parents and are looking for attention, affection because they are alone," he said.
"The victims take videos of themselves in bathing suits, behind their house, they announce where they are going, the location, where they have been (...) That's when the perpetrator can know their location, there is the danger because they will reach them and they will contact them," said Soto, who is part of a community of hackers, who work hand in hand with the law and the support of the authorities to prevent cybercrime in the United States.
Open chat rooms, a source of danger
Child predators are also active on the most popular online video game platforms or on anime sites. In these spaces, communities can be recreated to generate interaction, using techniques such as the grooming -pedophile deception-:
"I, an adult of a certain age, pretend to be another child, but, in addition, I've been listening to him in video games, I know what day he connects, at what time; I've heard what he talks about, because he does it over the Internet. And many times the victims can share information, for example: "I'm alone", "my mom went to work as a nurse", "my dad is not here either". Finally, these conversations make a profile of the child with whom the aggressor generates that bond of trust, several days pass until trust is achieved with expressions like: "I know you can't go to the next level", "I'll help you", "I can give you advice" and the child believes that he is a friend, that he is a good person and that he is six years old like him", the risks for children and adolescents rise when parents stop supervising the activities of their children both in social networks and when they play online with chats, where they connect with strangers.
"The pedophile searches on Google and knows what are the most popular games, he starts searching in those games and once he gets in as a user he selects the minor. He throws a bait with something that children like a lot to look for the one who can violate. When they already have the victim, they invite the child to private places such as WhatsApp, where the adult is already alone with the child".
Online games include those based on anime and manga (a Japanese comic book genre). Some of them include rules where the youngsters must play roles that the adult can access and manipulate. Players must do everything they are ordered to do as if they were a kind of teacher and where the aim is to sexualize the minor.
The experts consulted in this research emphasize that all social networks with chat are synonymous with contact and, therefore, danger for children and adolescents.
"Everything that allows that child to interact means a risk (...) a pedophile with a chat room has more chances of finding a minor, because they are open, no one is watching and the child does not differentiate what is a contact from a friend or a criminal," said the member of the organization Mamá en Línea.
Gateway to human trafficking
The link between the abuse and exploitation of children and adolescents and organized crime includes the dark chapter of kidnapping, human trafficking and trafficking of children under 18 years of age who may be contacted through a comment, videos, music or chats through which sexual predators navigate with the purpose, later, of trying to take the victims.
Children and adolescents continue to be at high risk of exploitation, especially with the closure of schools that not only hindered access to education, but also took away a source of refuge for victims who were once more likely to come forward and report an abusive situation for help, but which has now been lost due to the global quarantine.
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