child pornography and sexual exploitation of children online

Young people may fail to understand that in using technology they are potentially used by
it. This may be of particular concern in relation to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender
adolescents who may exhibit special vulnerabilities and who may be open to exploitation
by others within the online environment.
4.5 Young people’s sexually problematic behaviours and the new
technologies
4.5.1 Sexual solicitation
To date, there is very little published research that helps us understand what it is that
young people do (as opposed to what they may be exposed to) that constitutes sexually
problematic behaviour in relation to the new technologies (Quayle, 2007). In the following
we are going to reconsider some of the behaviours recently examined in the context of
adult offenders and see how they apply to young people. The first of these, soliciting
activities, was explored in the YISS 1 study by Finkelhor et al. (2000) through the analysis
of telephone interview data from a large sample (1501) of young Internet users about their
experiences online. Their findings indicated that one in five children who regularly used
the Internet experienced a sexual solicitation or approach over the year examined by the
study. One in 33 received an aggressive sexual solicitation, which included being asked to
meet offline, telephone calls or things sent through the post. One in four had unwanted
exposure to sexual images, and one in 17 were threatened or harassed. Approximately one
quarter of the children who reported these incidents were distressed by them. The data
from Finkelhor et al.’s (2000) survey indicated that juveniles made up 48% of the overall
solicitations and 48% of the aggressive solicitations against youth (27% were of unknown
age). These authors concluded that not all of the sexual solicitors on the Internet fit the
media stereotype of an older, male predator. Many were young and some were women. A
number of the sexual solicitations appeared to be propositions for ‘cybersex’, and in almost
half of the incidents the young person did not tell anyone about the episode.
Many of the stereotypes we have of those who sexually solicit children within the online
environment have been challenged, and it is important that we acknowledge this in both
understanding who is at risk and that other young people may be the perpetrators.
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