Grooming, Child Abuse, & Child Sexual Exploitation
Identifying the Demographic and Internet Use Characteristics of Technology-Facilitated Child Sex Offenders Operating in the Australian, U.S. and U.K. General Population.
Open Access: Yes.
Abstract
Research on technology-facilitated child sex offenders outside of forensic and clinical samples is scarce but necessary to inform prevention, early intervention, and investigation. This article describes and compares the demographic characteristics and internet use habits of technology-facilitated child sex offenders sourced from three quota-based samples comparable to the Australian (n = 1,945), U.S. (n = 1,473), and U.K. (n = 1,506) adult male population. The odds (99% CI) of technology-facilitated child sex offending, relative to non-offenders, were calculated for demographic factors (e.g. age, sexual orientation, and number of children in household), hours per day spent online, frequency of engagement in common online behaviours (e.g. sending emails, online messaging, and private video chatting), use of social media platforms (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat), online pornography viewership, and use of privacy software (e.g. The Onion Router [TOR], Telegram, and Element). Logistic regression analysis adjusted for age, educational attainment, household income, and residential location were conducted separately for each sample, with effect sizes formally compared between countries. The study identified significantly higher rates of technology-facilitated offending against children in the United States (10.9%) compared to Australia (7.5%) and United Kingdom (7.0%). Online offenders were between 2 and 3.7 times more likely to work with children and, depending on the jurisdiction, were significantly more likely to be employed, married/living with a partner, have a bachelor’s degree or higher, and live with a child. Across all jurisdictions, technology-facilitated offenders were significantly more sexually active online, including paying for sexual services and content, visiting romance and dating websites, and viewing violent or animal pornography. The article considers the implications of these findings for prevention, early intervention, and more effective detection of technology-facilitated offending, including the role of internet regulation and the financial sector in online child protection.
Relevance
“Technology-facilitated child sex offenders had a heightened engagement with online sexual services and content. Across the three samples, online offenders reported significantly more frequent engagement with online pornography than non-offenders, and were more likely to view bestiality material as well as violent and rough pornography. They were significantly more likely to pay to view sexual content and material online… Our study [also] finds that engagement with adult content and sexual interest in paraphilic themes are higher amongst technology-facilitated child sex offenders than non-offending men in the general community” and that “technology-facilitated child sex offenders are engaged in other online services relating to sex and sexuality, such as the use of dating and romance sites.”
“Regardless of country, men who engage in technology-facilitated child sex offending were 7.08 to 14.75 times more likely to report that they had been approached by a child selling sexual content online, 6.73 to 17.05 times more likely to watch bestiality, 5.98 to 8.67 times more likely to purchase sexual content and services online, and 3.90 to 6.50 times more likely to watch violent and rough pornography.”
Technology-facilitated child sex offending was “significantly associated with more frequent engagement” with online pornography, romance and dating websites, livestreaming oneself, and, in Australia and the U.S., more frequent online gaming, among other things.
Men who engaged in technology-facilitated child sex offending were “disproportionately active on sites with a majority youth audience,” such as Snapchat and Instagram. The “were three to five times more likely to use the encrypted social media app Telegram, and far more likely to use cryptocurrency to pay for online purchases.” They also, depending on country had preferences to “other encrypted and privacy services” such as the encrypted social media apps WhatsApp, Element, Hive, and Signal as well as VPNs and the TOR browser (or “dark web”).
Last, One of the striking findings of this study is the significantly higher rate of online offending against children in the United States compared to Australia and the United Kingdom.”
Citation
