Over 20,000 People Tried to Have Skype-Sex with 10-Year-Old Who Doesn’t Exist

Independent
November 5, 2013

A computer-generated image made available by Terres des Hommes shows virtual alias 'Sweetie' designed as the face of a 10-year-old Filipino girl.
A computer-generated image made available by Terres des Hommes shows virtual alias ‘Sweetie’ designed as the face of a 10-year-old Filipino girl.

A group campaigning against child sex exploitation has run an online sting operation which caught thousands of paedophiles trying to solicit a computer-generated 10-year-old girl.

More than 20,000 separate users were ensnared over the course of 10 weeks, all trying to watch the virtual Filipino child Sweetie perform indecent acts via a webcam.

Researchers from the Netherlands-based activists group Terre des Hommes logged in to public chat rooms under the alias of Sweetie, an apparently real girl who they identified clearly by country of origin, gender and age.

The results were shocking, according to the group’s project director Has Guyt. They found that the forums were flooded with people willing to pay to see a young child perform sex acts live online.

Using basic online search techniques, Mr Guyt’s team at a small, remote office outside Amsterdam was able to compile a dossier of 1,000 named internet users, complete with written and video evidence, engaged in the illegal activity.

The top country of origin for the adults identified was the United States with 254, followed by Britain with 110 and India with 103.

Terres des Hommes have passed their findings on to Interpol, but the online abusers will only be prosecuted if police can find evidence in their own investigations. The group said only six perpetrators of what they call “webcam child sex tourism” have ever been convicted of the crime worldwide.

“If we don’t intervene soon, this sinister phenomenon will totally run out of control,” Mr Guyt said, describing it as a “cottage” industry that needs to be stamped out now.

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