By Kauser Husain
Cyber crime is the newest and the most complicated problem in the cyber world. Cyber crime is basically an illegal act in which computer is either tool or target. After the development of internet, anybody can have easy access of data and information from all over the world.
But instead of taking benefits of internet, some people are misusing computers and internet for crime such as cyber pornography, cyber stalking, email bombing, virus attacks, web jacking etc. Other than these crimes, offenders use the cyber world for child abuse which is also a kind of cyber crime.
Children are the newest victims of cyber crime. Offenders use illegal activities such as online grooming against the children to make them victims. The computer and internet are being used to commit crimes against children such as child exploitation, production, distribution, and possession of child pornography; exposure to harmful content; grooming, harassment, and sexual abuse; and cyber bullying.
The authors have discussed the connection between a child and cyber crime. The authors have also mentioned how cyber offenders use the cyber world to abuse children. Some preventive measures are also discussed at the end of the essay.
Introduction
As the web usage is growing daily the world is drawing nearer. The World Wide Web appears like a huge development; however, surprisingly, one amongst its qualities is bringing the globe nearer, creating a smaller place to live for its users. However, at the same time it has managed to form another problem for its users — that is Cyber Crime.
The matter of cyber crime is growing steadily and plenty of individuals became victims of hacking, fraud, malicious software etc. In other words, cyber crime is criminal activity directly associated with the use of computers, specifically illegal trespass into the computer system or information of another, manipulation or theft of stored or on-line knowledge, or sabotage of apparatus and knowledge.
The cyber area is growing very fast and so are cyber crimes. Cyber crime is classified into numerous varieties as hacking, theft, cyber stalking, malicious software, child soliciting and abuse etc.
Cyber Crime against Children
The information and communication technologies have created a brand new area for the kids to learn and play. It’s an area of both opportunities and risks where the youngsters are developed; however, on the other hand, they can be the victims of cyber crime.
The information and communication technologies enable the offenders to create the children as their target separately and together. The potential motives of the offenders include personal gratification, typically by way of sexual exploitation, money making etc.
The online exploitation of youngsters could be a growing international concern, with advances in technology facilitating their abuse. Low cost for information and communication technology devices and easy web access means the sex offenders have new access to material and a web community to affirm their abusive and exploitive behaviour.
Kids and young people are adopting the technologies earlier and more typically and inadvertently exposing themselves to on-line child predators at an alarming rate. Statutory offence for personal and commercial purpose, child trafficking, cyber grooming and cyber bullying are just a few of the risks the digital age has brought to children across the globe.
Whereas information and technology advances have not essentially given rise to completely new types of child abuse, they have in some cases changed the character and dimensions of the exploitation.
Through the internet, online predators can gain access to children faster and in higher volumes, using chat rooms, emails, online games, and social networking sites to find and groom victims. Cyberspace has also significantly reduced the risk and increased the ability for offenders to access child sex abuse materials.
“Prior to the internet, an offender was thought to have a huge collection with 150 images of children; today a 150,000 images collection is quite standard, and 1.5 million image collections not heard of,” said Dr. Joe Sullivan, a forensic psychologist who works with child sex offenders.
New forms of exploitations are also developing with easy accessibility: made-to-order child sexual abuse material is an example, where offenders order materials to their specifications, such as age and race of victims, the nature of the sexual conduct, the setting and fantasy story lines.
Online Grooming
Grooming is a method used by sex offenders to establish a secret trust and relationship eventually with a minor within or her, in order to meet. In this respect, grooming is an old phenomenon: the family friend who regularly visits a family and plays with the children, increasingly “sharing little secrets” and establishing a bond that the child does not dare break, even when the secret slowly but surely comes too close for comfort.
In these cases, however, there is always the possibility of the parents finding something odd in the family friend’s behaviour and keeping a close eye on them. This may be different in online situations, where, as we have seen, parents know less of what their children are doing and consequently may not notice the establishment of an online trust relationship with a stranger, possibly involving online exposure to sexual material or forms of “sextortion,” seeking to control the child and continue the abuse, which may include child pornography or even sex trafficking.
Online grooming relates to the use of digital technologies to facilitate either online or offline sexual contact with minors. Basically online grooming is a process of emotional manipulation by which pedophiles prepare children and youth for sexual exploitation.
The grooming process typically involves an adult befriending a young person and then winning his or her trust by showering the youth with flattery, sympathy, gifts of money and modelling jobs, and other personal attention.
Finally, the groomers attempt to sexualize the new relationship, seeking to control the child and continue the abuse.
United Nations Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice
In May 2011, the United Nations Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (CCPCJ) published a report from its twentieth meeting in Vienna, focusing on the growing problem of cyber crime against children.
The CCPCJ, a subsidiary body of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and the governing body of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), undertakes international action to combat national and transnational crime, promoting the role of criminal law to prevent illegal trafficking in natural resources, crime prevention in urban areas, and improving the efficiency and fairness of criminal justice systems.
The Executive Director of UNODC, Yury Fedotov, while opening the twentieth meeting of the CCPCJ by framing the scope of cyber crime against children, emphasised that with nearly two billion internet users worldwide, there are “greater opportunities for criminals to entrap new victims, including children.”
Specifically, new information technologies are being misused to commit crimes such as: child exploitation; production, distribution, and possession of child pornography; exposure to harmful content; grooming, harassment, and sexual abuse; and cyber bullying.
The latest technologies make it easier for criminals to contact children in ways that were not previously possible. Children are particularly vulnerable to the exploitation of online predators because they rely heavily on networking websites for social interaction.
The U.N. Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (TOC) covers the most forms of computer-related crime because such offences are (a) transnational, (b) involve organised criminal groups, and (c) are committed with the intent to achieve a material or financial benefit.
The term “benefit” in the TOC is interpreted broadly to include sexual gratification, such as the receipt or trade of materials by members of child grooming rings, the trading of children by pedophile rings or cost-sharing among ring members.
Preventive Measures to Protect Children from Cyber Crime
The best tool a child has for screening material found on the internet is his or her brain. In most of the cases, the parents are responsible for the conduct of the children.
To avoid cyber crime, the parents should teach their children about exploitation, pornography, hate literature, excessive violence and other issues that concern the world. Parents should teach children to respond responsibly so that the children know how to respond when they see such material.
There should be a commercial online service that offers parental control features. These features can block content that is not clearly marked as appropriate for children, including chat rooms, bulletin boards, newsgroups, discussion groups, and websites.
The parents should monitor their children when they are using the internet or when they are online. The parents should regularly talk to their children about internet safety, should check their internet history, child’s online profile, friends and buddies list with the child etc.
On the other hand the children can also make themselves safe from cyber crime. The child should tell his or her parents immediately if he or she finds something scary or threatening on the internet.
The children should never give out their name, address, telephone number, password, school name, parent’s name or any other personal information online. The children should never agree to meet anyone whom they have met online and never respond to any message that has bad words, seems scary, weird, or uncomfortable.
Conclusion
There are various factors that make children more vulnerable to cyber crime: gender plays an important role, with victims being girls, but the World Wide Web appears like a huge development; however, social-economic background and risky behaviour typical of adolescence make some children more vulnerable than others.
Experts agreed that better education and awareness are essential to protect children from online crimes. The parents should work to overcome the generational digital divide and take a vested interest in the technologies they give their children, educating them on their safe use and on the potential ramifications of careless online behaviour. Parents and educators need a good understanding of how sex offenders work.