Sexual Extortion of Children in Cyberspace

Abstract

IntroductionAnonymity and speed provided by cyber space have made it easier to meet new people at an unprecedented rate. Traditional web forums and chat rooms such as IRC, which became hugely popular in the beginning of Internet Age, lost their dominance to social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook (Peris et al., 2002; Ellison, 2007). Recently though, mobile dating applications such as Tinder (Roeffen, 2015) have started to enjoy a great popularity. In addition, some platforms such as online gaming sites (Cole & Griffiths, 2007) have made it easier to meet new people indirectly despite the fact that they do not specifically aim at the socialization of users. While such tools, applications and websites lose their popularity over time, they do not completely disappear. Therefore, the new means of socialization in cyberspace cause an expansion in the amount of communication channels available online.Young people, who embrace technological advances, electronic gadgets, and the emerging social networking applications most rapidly, have become the ones who use such means of socialization most frequently as well (Madden, Lenhart, Duggan, Cortesi, & Gasser, 2013; Lenhart, Purcell, Smith, & Zickuhr, 2010). Furthermore, thanks to Voice-over Internet Protocol (VoIP) applications, they are able to engage in video chat shortly after they meet on the communication channels mentioned above, even carrying the online friendships to real life in case of geographical proximity. However, this vast domain of social networking creates a wide attack surface for cyber threats targeting children (Livingstone & Smith, 2014). As a result, the Internet has become a place where potential victims can be hunted with the help of the diverse channels of online communication.Unfortunately, it is only when a shocking news makes it to the headlines does the public learn about new online threats to children. In this context, the suicide of Amanda Todd, a 15-year-old Canadian girl, was the first sensational incident that brought up the Sexual Extortion of Children in Cyberspace. Having recorded a webcam chat where Amanda showed her breasts, a Dutch adult threatened her to broadcast the video online unless she performs 3 more shows. When the abuser carried out his threat, the victim changed her residence and school, upon which the abuser set up fake social media profiles of the victim in a special effort to make sure that her new friends learn about the incident (Victims of Violence, n.d.).This article examines Sexual Extortion of Children in Cyberspace (SECC), which has gained notoriety despite the fact that it has recently emerged, and is also considered one of the most significant online threats to children in 2015 (Europol, 2015). Visibility of this offence is very low to law enforcement agencies because a relatively small number of victims and abusers are reported or caught. Therefore, it is difficult to reach a significant and reliable amount of samples to conduct a scientific research. However, gaining a deep insight into SECC and developing efficient prevention strategies on the basis of such insights without waiting for establishment of a measurable and comparable group of victims or abusers would undisputedly provide practical benefits. For this reason, it has become necessary to make some assumptions on the behaviors of victims and abusers. Created by basing on the real life cases, various reports and academic studies on the issue, such assumptions will be hopefully tested by further research.In this respect, after the characteristics and frequently-observed modus operandi of SECC are described, the points of differentiation and overlap between SECC and other related concepts about online child sexual abuse will be examined. Then, the constituent elements of SECC will be identified and explained in detail, and possible prevention strategies and research areas will be discussed individually for each one. …