New Zealand's internet watchdog is telling parents to warn their children about online dangers after TV ONE's Close Up tracked down men preying on a fictitious 14-year-old girl for sex.
A Close Up reporter confronted men in parkland and other Auckland locations after they made sexually explicit comments to a fictitious 14-year-old in an online chatroom, and arranged to meet. A Close Up producer set himself up as a 14-year-old on a chatsite commonly used by young people.
Men were quick to make contact, with sexually explicit suggestions and requests. Executive director of Netsafe Martin Crocker told Close Up everybody should be concerned and worried about the risks online.
"If our children go on the internet then they are potentially going to be exposed to these sorts of people," he said. "That's the case for all children and they all go on the internet. So they're all going going to be exposed. "There's conversations that we as parents need to have with our children. We're having to have them at younger and younger ages because the internet is exposing quite young children to some of these risks."
Crocker said he thinks parents are probably putting off the conversation with their children about internet risks "just a little too long generally". He said: "But you just have to have that conversation now."Unfortunately there's no technological solution to the problem, he said, because access to the internet is everywhere. "You can't sort of say 'we'll just put the computer in the living room' or something like that anymore. They can get on anywhere."
No surprises
Crocker said the scale of the responses from men to the "girl" in the chatroom doesn't surprise him. "That's what the internet does. It gives people the opportunity to fish around and look for potential victims, and so there are a lot of people doing that unfortunately."
He said as soon as somebody travels for the purpose of having sex with a minor, they have broken the law, so all five of the men in the story broke the law. A young woman posed as a 14-year-old for face-to-face meetings with the men.
Confronted by Close Up, one of the men said: "I wasn't going to take her anywhere in the house or nothing. We were going to have an ice cream and that was it."In the online chat he had asked how long the ice cream would take because he had other plans, and asked would she have sex with him. "They get on the internet, have a conversation with you and lead you on," the man told Close Up.
'Bullet proof' attitude
However, Detective Senior Sergeant John-Paul Michael of the police team Online Child Exploitation Across New Zealand told the programme police have not encountered young girls leading men on. Michael said young girls can think they are "ten foot tall and bullet proof" and the internet is a great place.
"But if you put personal information out there, if you put photos out there people can get those. And we've had cases in Australia and in the UK where young women have been murdered after meeting people through social networking sites."Michael said police warn about the internet risk time and time again but it does not seem to get through.
"So as law enforcement we get a little bit frustrated thinking how often to we have to give this warning before it gets through. Does it take the death of someone before it gets through? We would hate to see that happen."Close Up is passing complete recordings made with the online predators to the police for their follow-up. Crocker said for advice on the issue, parents or teenagers can visit the Netsafe website. Netsafe works in conjunction with the police to fight cybercrime.
If somebody witnesses an online crime or is the victim of one, they can visit theorb.org.nz to report the crime and it will then it will be forwarded to a law enforcement agency. Crocker has encouraged people to come forward "otherwise people will continue to get away with it and there will be more and more victims".