Queensland police stings in online chat rooms
Tony Krone · Trends and issues in crime and criminal justice · 2005
This paper reports the experience of Queensland police in the investigation of predatory behaviour by men seeking sex with children through online chat rooms. It includes a discussion of two successful prosecutions. The results of this study show the aggressive and rapid way that children are targeted by adults for sexual purposes. In 76 per cent of cases the suspect was arrested for an offence within one month of the first online contact. In 68 per cent of cases the adult sought offline contact with the child. In 48 per cent of cases the adult suspect was arrested at the intended rendezvous with the child. This work is the result of a collaboration between the Australian Institute of Criminology and the Australian High Tech Crime Centre. Toni Makkai Director Children are growing up with computers. They use computers at home, at friends' places, at the library and at school to work, play and communicate. Some have net connectivity on portable devices such as mobile phones. Computers connected to the internet provide a number of ways to communicate in real time with other people who can be anywhere, including across the room, hallway, road, city, state, country or world. Various facilities are available to search out others with similar backgrounds or interests. If a child enters an online chat room they may encounter an adult person, who may or may not be pretending to be a child, but who is on the lookout for a child to whom they can 'talk dirty', send obscene images, obtain sexually explicit pictures, engage in cybersex or meet for sex offline. The adult might strike up a conversation which very soon progresses to a sexually explicit topic. In some jurisdictions there may be a limited range of possible offences to cover such actions. Where there are laws in place, how are we to combat this predatory type of behaviour? One way is for the police to pretend to be children in online spaces and wait for the predators to come to them. This paper reflects on the nature of online grooming and the police response. It reports on the 25 investigations into online grooming completed by the Queensland Police in the period June 2003 and September 2004 under the code name Task Force Argos. The purpose of this study is to better understand how online grooming offences are committed and how they can be policed. Laws against seeking sex with children A range of possible offences may be used where an adult engages in sexual activity with a child, depending on the nature of the sexual activity. If, however, an adult approaches a child with the intent of engaging in sexual activity, but no sexual activity actually takes place, that may or may not constitute an offence. Whether or not it is an offence depends on the available law. In cases of attempting to commit a sexual offence, there will also be a question of fact to answer - that is, whether the adult has taken steps towards carrying out their intent. While the relevant laws vary across Australia, the possible charges fall into four categories: 1. attempting to commit a specific sexual offence with a child; 2. procuring a child for a sexual purpose; 3. soliciting a child for a sexual purpose; or 4. grooming a child by communicating with that child with the intent to procure that child to engage in a sexual act. Queensland introduced a specific law against adults grooming children for sexual purposes in the Sexual Offences (Protection of Children) Amendment Act 2003. The Act inserted section 21 8 A into the Queensland Criminal Code. The provision makes it an offence for an adult to use electronic communication (such as email, internet chat rooms, SMS messages, real time audio/video or other similar communication) with the intention of procuring a person under the age of 16 years (or whom the adult believes to be under 16 years) to engage in a sexual act. The definition of sexual intercourse is specifically not limited to acts involving physical contact. …