Internet Sex Offender Behaviors

There is a sequence of events that usually occur before the child molester or sex offender actually meets the victim face-to-face and a sexual assault results. This process is known as grooming.



The Internet: A Sex Offender's Paradise
The Internet enables the pedophile, child molester and sex offender a much wider selection of victims than any other source in the history of mankind. There are literally millions of chat rooms, news groups, forums and e-mail lists where those wishing to cause harm to others lurk in search of a perfect victim.



There is a sequence of events that usually occur before the child molester or sex offender actually meets the victim face-to-face and a sexual assault results. This process is known as grooming. During this time, the predator is establishing trust with the intended victim, which greatly decreases the chances of being discovered. The average child molester is an expert at manipulating children and knows how to find an emotional or physical void and fill it very quickly.




Calculated Victim Recruitment
The child molester begins his search for a victim in his or her favorite area of the Internet. This can be one of the chat networks, a forum, a mailing list, an online community, a gaming area, a newsgroup, or one of hundreds of other areas on the Internet where people meet and socialize.



It is very common for the online offender to be recruiting dozens of victims at the same time. He is likely to have already molested some of the young people he has contacted online and is planning to sexually abuse more in the future.



Introduction to Secrecy
During this phase, the offender will often teach the child how to keep the online friendship a secret from his or her parents and other adults. He teaches the child about how to bypass parental controls, how to use keyboard shortcuts to turn off the screen or the entire system, how to encrypt files and a wide variety of other slick tricks that most parents haven't even imagined.



Desensitizing With Pornography or Erotica
The pedophile or child molester often sends child pornography or links to child pornography Web sites to his/her victim. This technique is used to wear down any sexual inhibitions that the child may have. The victim may also be asked to send sexually explicit photos of himself/herself.



Virtual Contact Becomes A Reality
The sex offender nearly always requests to talk to the victim on the phone. During these conversations, he or she is nearly always trying to engage the intended victim in some type of sexually explicit dialog or phone sex. He or she will almost always be masturbating during the conversation and strongly encourage if not insist that his victim masturbate and give him feedback about what he or she is thinking.



Coaxing the Face-to-face Meeting
The child molester or sex offender works hard to convince the his or her victim to meet in person. He or she will make promises of gifts and guarantees that he is harmless and safe to meet.



The Sexual Abuse Incident
Child sexual abuse refers to a range of sexual behavior, perpetrated by an adult, or an adolescent, with or without the consent of a child, for the sexual gratification of the perpetrator.



Examples include instances where a child is encouraged, coerced, forced or enticed into such acts as sexual molestation, fondling, sexual intercourse, fellatio, cunnilingus, exhibitionism, or any form of sexual exploitation such as juvenile prostitution or child pornography.



In nearly all of the online predator cases I have been involved in, the suspected child molester shows up at the place where he has arranged to meet the child and has evidence of his intentions to assault the child on his person or in his vehicle.



Such evidence includes daily planners with names and addresses of his intended or previous victims, printed e-mail from his intended or previous victims, condoms or other methods of birth control, adult sex toys, digital cameras, lingerie and more. If the intended child molester plans to take the child to a hotel or motel, the room is usually rented before meeting the child and he usually has the receipt in his car.

Here are some tips about how to avoid an encounter with a pedophile, child molester or sex offender: Talk to your children and educate them about some of the dangers associated with posting an ad for a pen pal or responding to a request for a pen pal. Children should not post their names, addresses, or other personal information in an online pen pal ad. Do not allow a child to place his or her photo on a pen pal Web site and talk to the child about when it may be appropriate to exchange photos with a pen pal. Children need to know that if anything about the pen pal relationship makes them uncomfortable, they are asked to keep a secret, or they receive inappropriate requests or material from a pen pal, they need to talk to a trusted adult about it immediately. Never allow your child to have a face-to-face meeting with a pen pal without a trusted adult present and always meet in a safe public place such as a fast food restaurant or mall. Do not allow the child to leave with someone, be picked up, or dropped off at his or her home or meet someone alone. If you are concerned about the safety of your family, remember that parental supervision is the best way to protect your children but you may also want to consider using an ISP with parental controls. Here are some resources for monitoring your children's Internet activities. CyberPatrol lets you monitor and control your child's online activities and protects them from harmful content, including Spyware and Phishing sites. It lets you block or filter chat and instant messaging programs as well as safeguard against abusive language in chat sessions.