The simplicity of the scheme belies its genius. A sting operation by Amsterdam-based group, Terres des Hommes, uncovered more than a thousand adults trying to engage in sex acts with a ten-year-old Filipino girl.
The genius part? The girl was a computerized decoy set up by international children’s rights group to lure potential pedophiles from seventy-one countries during the ten-week project.
According to an article in the National Post, fifty-four Canadians were among those caught in the honey trap.
“It’s frightening to see that these people think that the Internet is a completely lawless space,” said one of researchers who chose to protect his identity. “The most shocking part of this—aside from the horrific child-abuse material that we were sometimes sent—was just the fact that it was so easy to catch these people. They have zero risk perception.”
Since the people so readily handed over personal information, such as names, addresses, telephone numbers and email addresses, Interpol can now forward this information to authorities to enable prosecution for child pornography and child prostitution.
Once the fictitious girl named “Sweetie” logged on to various public chat rooms, it was easy to lure users, who offered anywhere between $1 and $100 using prepaid credit cards to watch her perform a sex act via webcam.
“It was so clear that these people were after 10-year-old children,” said the researcher. “Some men would say, ‘I’ll pay you $500 to see you and your six-year-old sister have sex’.”
Sick sick sick. Kudos to Terres for their amazing efforts. All the more reason to be vigilant online, for your child's sake.
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