Kingston
University and NatCen Social Research conducted a three year study about online
predators. The study looked into the techniques
and activities of online predators. The
study found that online predators are moving away from their grooming process
and started a sexually conversation within 2 minutes of meeting a victim.
The researchers gathered their data
by interviewing convicted pedophiles in the United Kingdom, Belgium and Norway. In
addition, the researchers extensively reviewed chat logs provided by law
enforcement of convicted online predators. It
was clears from the reports the researchers reviewed that if a child did not
respond within 2 minutes, the online predator moved onto another victim.
The study found online predators targeted
children in the social networking sites and especially boys in the gaming
networks such as Xbox Live and PlayStation.
However, there was still evidence
that some online predators practiced longer grooming time, with spending up to
six hours a day online, outside of work. Many added hundreds of children to
their contact list on the social networking sites and worked through the
victims until one of them would interact with the online predator.
"Sometimes
offenders have several children on the go at once, with pedophiles assuming
several different identities," Professor Julia Davidson added.
"They keep across many different conversations and keep meticulous notes
on each child in a very calculating way."
Another
problem found was children would add “friends” they did not know to their
contact list on the social networking sites because of a sense of competition
with other children to have more “friends”. The online predators would now have
access to the children’s personal information and would use it to identify
potential victims.
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