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paper, such as online abuse where there is no physical contact between the offender andthe child/adolescent. Gillespie (personal communication) has questioned whether mostlegal systems adequately deal with this situation, and although many States suggest that itis covered by child pornography laws, these focus on the images and not the conduct of theoffender. Another term that creates difficulties is that of the Internet offender who attemptsto meet a minor for offline sexual encounters. Here the term minor in some countrieswould mean a person up to the age of 17 whereas in other jurisdictions a minor wouldindicate a person below 15 or 14 years of age. Several studies on Internet sex offendersmeeting with adolescents will present data on offenders meeting with 16 and 17 year olds.In countries where adolescents at that age ‘own’ their own sexuality and are considered oldenough to consent to sexual relationships, an encounter where the alleged victim consentsto the meeting and to having sex would not be considered a crime. In other countries, mostnotably in several states in the US, it would.At the same time, during the past few years we have witnessed the developmentof supranational and international policy documents which set out to define ‘childpornography’. Since the Second World Congress we have seen the development of fourpolicy documents that are central to this issue. The European Union’s Framework Decisionon combating the sexual exploitation of children and child pornography entered into forcein 2004 and required member states to take steps to ensure compliance by 20 January,2006. Here child pornography is defined as pornographic material that visually depicts orrepresents:(i) a real child involved or engaged in sexually explicit conduct, including lasciviousexhibition of the genitals or the pubic area of a child; or(ii) a real person appearing to be a child involved or engaged in the conductmentioned in (i); or(iii) realistic images of a non-existent child involved or engaged in theconduct mentioned in (i).As we can see, the definition in the EU Framework Decision talks about a ‘real’ child, ‘real’person and ‘realistic’ images, which may prove unlikely to cover virtual images or cartoons.The Council of Europe’s Cybercrime Convention (2001) came into force in July 2004, andArticle 9 defines child pornography as pornographic material that visually depicts:a. a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct;b. person appearing to be a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct;c. realistic images representing a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct.Child Pornography and Sexual Exploitation of Children Online |83