Much ado about nothing? Representations and realities of online soliciting of children

Abstract

This paper is concerned with where the public's ideas come from about online risks to children and young people. Combining perspectives from criminology, sociology and media studies, it will be argued that as a culture we are confused about childhood and hold on to highly ambiguous ideas about children and sexuality. Further, despite the media's inclination to present adult attraction to children as a uniquely “modern” phenomenon, conflicting notions of childhood have always underpinned social and legal norms and were particularly salient in Victorian society. More recently, at precisely the same time as individuals have retreated from public spheres to the “security” of domestic and privatized spaces, we have seen the emergence of one of the most feared phenomena of the age: the online sexual abuse of children.