When New Media became a weapon against pedophilia

An non-governmental organization (NGO) in Netherland created a virtual little girl to identify pedophiles. This trap was pretty successful; more than 1000 “sexual predators” were identified. The virtual technologies progress and the interactivity of new media allow us to develop efficient weapon in the war against criminal activities such as pedophilia. On the other hand the significant degree of freedom offered by new media makes the expansion of malicious intents uncontrollable. This freedom depicts the paradox within the media framework.

The virtual little girl is called is Sweetie and she is 6 years old. She was virtually created and therefore she does not exist. When the picture of her were posted on the web, the trap was extremely efficient. A lot of people with pedophilic tendencies tried to contact her. The NGO collected the addresses and phone numbers of the people who tried to get in touch with Sweetie and transmitted their identities to relevant authorities like Interpol.

Sweetie, the virtually created little girl

       Virtual technologies are not only useful for cinema or video-games. The development of virtual reality gives now the possibility to create people which seem to be surprisingly real. The virtual creation makes it almost real and therefore it becomes increasingly difficult to recognize whether the person is real or virtually created. The technological progress and the omnipresence of the new media in our life are today the components of efficient weapons against criminality.

       It was presented and proved long time before Mass media had real effects on the behavioral development and well-being of children. New media has a relevant educational role for children. On the other hand, as new media grows in an exponential way, the children are always more exposed to unappropriated contents. This makes them more vulnerable, particularly on the web. Pedophiles take advantage of this vulnerability. There is a high correlation between the time spent on internet and the risk of children being exposed to such dangers such as pedophilia.

           The development and easier access of the web can be seen as dangerous from such perspective. The particular interesting aspect with the creation of Sweetie is that the authorities change their strategy and try to go one step further ahead to catch criminals. The police use tactics such as being undercover to catch and arrest criminals.

           Nevertheless the “sexual predator’s hunt” becomes more difficult through the increasing development of social network. Pedophiles take advantage of the large interactivity’s level of communication and the low degree of regulation on the social networks. The mechanism is very obvious. People with bad intents create a network account with a wrong identity. Then they try to form close friendship with children. It becomes more difficult for the authorities to identify the pedophiles.

         It is easy to see that new media increase interconnection between people. People with common interest can find each other more easily, develop network and create a community. When it concerns football or TV series it does not constitute a real threat for vulnerable people. Unfortunately mass media may bring together people with bad and strange tendencies and encourage the creation of network by initiating organized crime. As a consequence pedophilia is no more isolated, but organized. We can see two direct consequences. First the danger for children is higher and secondly it becomes harder for the authorities to detect this network which becomes increasingly organized. So far Sweetie may be an efficient tool for a limited amount of time. When some criminals are caught through this process, they distribute the information in the network. Consequently the efficiency of the trap decreases. Thus the fact that the existence of Sweetie was broadcasted shows us that this instrument will become inefficient.

            Finally Internet is universal but the law systems are not. Each country has its own criminal law. First to stimulate infraction through stratagems process is in some countries illegal. Secondly the proof can be only verified by the authority which is designated by the law. Concerning our case the NGO may not constitute a relevant one.