PARENTS, do you know who your kids are chatting with?

ONLINE chatting has spawned a whole set of acronyms and short-hand phrases that sexual predators are tapping to lure their young victims.

They lurk in online chatrooms and social networking websites, often masquerading as children to gain their unsuspecting victims' trust.

A study by the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) has found that parents were often ignorant about computer monitoring software and could not decipher sexually-oriented Internet acronyms commonly used in online conversations.

Dr Raymond Choo, who wrote the report, told The New Paper on Sunday that children, paedophiles and criminals involved in online commercial child exploitation are all usually familiar with this lingo.

He said children are usually more at ease with the use of the Internet and new media than the parents, teachers and other individuals who take care of them.

The young are increasingly communicating in ways unfamiliar to adults in cyberspace, he said.

Dr Choo, a Canberra-based researcher who had been with the Singapore Police Force for five years, said parents must limit their children's Internet time and be more familiar with the various modes of communication available online.

'Parents should also warn their children about the dangers of giving out personal information online,' he said.

The AIC report cited the 2006 US Youth Internet Safety Survey, where 1,500 children aged 10 to 17 were interviewed and reported having being harassed or solicited for sex online.

It also cited a 2007 UK cybercrime survey which estimated that 850,000 online sexual approaches were made in IRC rooms in 2006, and that 238 offences of meeting a child following sexual grooming were recorded.

Said Dr Choo: 'In a highly connected society like Singapore, individuals with a deviant sexual interest in children would find it much easier to locate children and young people online for criminal purposes.'

New media channels, such as social networking sites, IRC rooms and online games have also made it easier for these individuals to share information and strategies for child exploitation with other like-minded people.

This, he said, could lead to these individuals becoming bolder and more willing to take risks.

According to the AIC report, sexual grooming is a premeditated process, intended to secure the trust of children prior to engaging in sexual conduct.

Once trust has been established, offenders usually introduce a sexual element into the relationship, in order to desensitise the child to sexual behaviour.

Said Dr Choo: 'This includes showing them pornographic materials to lower their defences, and to get them to accept these sexual acts as 'normal' rather than 'abnormal' or 'abusive'.'

Offenders have been known to use the Internet to dig up personal information about their target children, through online chatrooms, online gaming forums and personal profiles on social networking sites.

Difficult to track

And tracking them is more difficult. Dr Choo said that in recent years, new technologies such as anonymisers, password authentication and encryption software have increasingly been used by offenders to hide their online activities.

'Some offenders may even use foreign language search terms for child exploitation material to avoid detection by local authorities,' he said.

He added that while no detailed studies have yet been done on the demographics of online child grooming offenders, international studies have suggested that they are more likely to be professionals.

'Perhaps this is because unlike traditional crimes, online child exploitation requires a minimal level of computer competency such as using chat programs,' Dr Choo said.

And keeping offenders in check is no mean feat, because of inconsistencies in child grooming laws across countries.

Said Dr Choo: 'Though countries like Singapore and Australia have a relatively comprehensive legislative framework in place to deal with online child grooming, disparities within and between countries will continue to create risks.'

In some cases, offenders had been grooming child victims in neighbouring countries, he said.

In such cases, the lack of online child grooming legislation in different jurisdictions could potentially hinder efforts to nab sex offenders.

The AIC report also noted that netizens were hesitant to report potential offenders to the authorities (see other report).

In the meantime, local organisations aiming to ensure the online safety of children are growing.

One such organisation, TOUCH Cyber Wellness and Sports, routinely alerts the authorities to potential threats.

Its manager, Mr Poh Yeang Cherng, said: 'Children should be taught to be careful and not be too trusting by asking several questions.

'How can I be sure that this person is not lying? Are there trusted real friends who can tell me about this person? Is this person open about me telling my parents about him/her? And finally, what other information is there online to verify what this person says about himself?'

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A hotline for netizens to report online exploitation?

THE AIC report found that netizens are often reluctant to report illegal online content directly to the police.

The New Paper on Sunday reported on 21Jun that an online marketeer in his 30s had set up a website featuring pictures of scantily-clad preteens accompanied by sexually suggestive captions.

He was active online for more than two years before a police report was made against him.

Before that, netizens had tried to expose the man's identity on online forums and blogs.

A 16-year-old student said he had planned to report the man to the authorities but decided not to because he was busy preparing for his exams.

Though the man's name and photographs were posted online, he remained bold - and even set up a blog to attack those who tried to expose him.

More recently, he set up another blog - while under police investigation - inviting young girls to add him to their contact lists via his new MSN account.

Dr Raymond Choo, the author of the AIC report, suggested that civilian hotlines could be an alternative to reporting to law enforcement agencies.

These hotlines could then pass reports of illegal content on to the authorities.

He cited the Canada-based Cybertip.ca hotline, which reported that on average the US National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's cyber tip line receives between 700 and 1,100 reports per week.

Dr Choo said that more needed to be done on the non-legislative front to ensure the online safety of children.

He said: 'Social networking sites should consider offering privacy-friendly default settings - that is, allow users to specify who are able to access their profile - instead of the default free-for-all settings.'

He added that authentication software, such as those using age verification, should also be used to restrict children and young people from accessing adult sites, or sites that host materials deemed inappropriate for children and young people.