Paedophile sting!

[pErvinalia]

Nice work!

This is really unsettling... Meet Sweetie, a 10-year-old girl from the Philippines who tracked down and identified 1,000 pedophiles. Except she isn't real -- she's a computer-generated avatar used as bait to lure online sex predators who target children: Meet 'Sweetie,' a virtual girl created to target child predators.

"Sweetie" was created by the Dutch children's rights organization Terre des Hommes as part of a campaign to end "web cam sex tourism," where men go online to pay children from developing countries to perform sex acts on camera. According to the charity, 20,000 men contacted Sweetie within the first 10 weeks.

Over the course of a 2.5-month sting operation, the group says, Sweetie helped Terre des Hommes identify more than 1,000 adults from 71 countries willing to pay children in developing countries to perform sex acts before a Webcam. On Monday, it announced that it would hand over video footage of the interactions to international police organization Interpol.

Sweetie first interacted with the potential predators in public chat rooms. Researchers made sure to model their alter ego's online conversation, in style and tone, to that of a preteen Filipino girl.

http://blog.angryasianman.com/2013/11/o ... ct-by.html

[FBM]

Good for them!

[JacksSmirkingRevenge]

I dare say some people are in for a shock when a squad of virtual coppers kicks their door in.

[mistermack]

I'm not sure how this would enable a prosecution, as the mugs could just claim that they knew it was fake.
But it would be a handy tool for finding out who to watch.

I suppose they could be done for sending obscene messages, even if they couldn't get them on grooming.

[klr]

I'm not sure how this would enable a prosecution, as the mugs could just claim that they knew it was fake.
But it would be a handy tool for finding out who to watch.

I suppose they could be done for sending obscene messages, even if they couldn't get them on grooming.

If they paid over money - and if there's a record of it - I can't see that excuse ever holding water.

[mistermack]

I'm not sure how this would enable a prosecution, as the mugs could just claim that they knew it was fake.
But it would be a handy tool for finding out who to watch.

I suppose they could be done for sending obscene messages, even if they couldn't get them on grooming.

If they paid over money - and if there's a record of it - I can't see that excuse ever holding water.

I agree, partly.
But certain charges couldn't be brought. Like corrupting a minor, or whatever the legal phrase is.
You can't corrupt an avatar, even it you thought that you were.
And they could argue that they knew it was fake, but still liked it, in which case, it's not much worse than watching a film.
People pay to watch a Rambo film, and get their kicks watching a make-believe of mass murder. It's not illegal, but it would be, if it was real.
I would think that the same principle would apply to this. It's not clear-cut in law.
Or maybe it is, and I'm not up to date with the law.

But if they are sending video of their own activity to the supposed sweetie, then I would think that that's a clear breach of the laws.
Mind you, if that's the case, maybe the sting people are also on shaky legal ground.

[pErvinalia]

If it was in Australia, they'd probably easily get done. We had that famous case of someone getting prosecuted for child pornography for have pictures of a cartoon lisa sucking off a cartoon bart. That was ridiculous.

[Warren Dew]

I'm not sure how this would enable a prosecution, as the mugs could just claim that they knew it was fake.
But it would be a handy tool for finding out who to watch.

I suppose they could be done for sending obscene messages, even if they couldn't get them on grooming.

If they paid over money - and if there's a record of it - I can't see that excuse ever holding water.

You don't think people ever pay money for computer generated porn?

[Xamonas Chegwé]

I never knew the bloody things could sting!

All the more reason to avoid priests.