Список використаних джерел:

1. Конституція України: Прийнята на п’ятій сесії Верховної Ради України 28 черв. 1996 р. – 15 с.

2. Кримінальний кодекс України: чинне законодавство зі змінами та допов. станом на 28 серпня 2012 року. – К. :ПАЛИВОДА А.В., 2012. – 183 с.

Cyber grooming as the phenomenon and measures of its prevention

Zaytseva A.G.

student of the 4^th course of the faculty of international legal relations

of the National University «Odesa Law Academy»

In May 2011, the United Nations Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice published a report from its twentieth meeting in Vienna, focusing on the growing problem of cyber crime against children. It was emphasized there that with nearly two billion internet users worldwide [1] there are «greater opportunities [for criminals] to entrap new victims, including children» [2]. The latest technologies make it easier for criminals to contact children in ways that were not previously possible. Children are particularly vulnerable to the exploitation of online predators because they rely heavily on networking websites for social interaction. Today one of the forms when new information technologies can be misused to commit crimes is cyber grooming [3].

The problem of minors’ victimization through the Internet technology was studied by Ukrainian scientists Bovt’ O., Gutsaluk M., Syneokiy O., etc. and also by such foreign scientists as Berson I., Gottschalk P., Kopecky K., Wall D. and many others. However, the phenomenon of cyber grooming still requires deep and complex research.

Cyber grooming is involved when the perpetrator takes advantage of the trust developed to convince the child or adolescent to watch sexual acts performed by the perpetrator in front of the camera or to convince the child or adolescent to engage in sexual conduct in front of the camera or to agree to meet in real life where sexual abuse can be the result as well as physical violence or child prostitution and pornography abuse, which means that cyber grooming is a kind of psychological manipulation carried out through the Internet, mobile phones and other relevant technologies [4].

Cyber grooming appears to be a platform for committing further crimes. International legal acts that establish legal responsibility and protect the rights of children are the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime 2001, the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime 2000, the Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989, the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography 2000, and the United Nations Resolutions 55/63 in 2000 and 56/121 in 2001 on Combating the criminal misuse of information technologies, and others.

Legal possibilities of criminal prosecution in Ukraine are:

• sexual abuse of children (Arts. 151, 153, 154, 303 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine);

• distribution of pornographic media (Art. 301 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

Under various statistics studies, nearly a third of young people have received unwanted sexual comment online or by text. Only seven percent of parents know their child has been subjected to such material. Moreover, one in twelve children with internet access has gone on to meet someone in reality after they first made contact on the internet [5].

Cyber grooming victims are children and young people usually aged 11-17 years, more often girls than boys [6]. It can be assumed that the victims are mainly those Internet users who spend a lot of free time in online communication environments (chat, instant messengers, and social networks) where they establish virtual contacts with others.

Cyber attackers are a heterogeneous group in which we can find both low and high social status users. In many cases the victim knows the offender and is dependent on him (in 85-95% of cases) [6], often the attacker is also a victim’s family acquaintance. According to researches, people have not been punished yet predominate among the attackers.

The scheme of the predators’ actions is the following. In the early stage of manipulation the attacker establishes a contact with the victim and continues to work on building and sustaining a virtual relationship. In order to get more personal information they behave like the mirror reflection of the victim. Trying to establish as close relationship with the victim as possible, the attacker also often uses various forms of bribes and «gifts» including money, mobile phone credit, and modern technology. And after finding out enough, the next step is gradual introduction of sexual content to the conversation [7]. Showing pornographic material to a child and reducing the child’s shyness, the attacker aims to obtain photographs or videos of naked victims (for instance, they are trying to force the victim to show himself at the webcam or to send them his naked photos). If the predator gets these highly sensitive materials, he can use them to blackmail the child/minor, threatening with publication of compromising material [7].

A personal meeting is the main cyber groomer’s effort and logical ending of previous stages. The first meeting of the attacker with the victim may be totally innocent so that the victim to believe that the attacker is harmless and that he is indeed the «exclusive friend», whom he has passed off on the Internet. Sexual and physical assaults start in the next meetings. And if a cyber groomer has plenty of powerful tools for manipulating, he may force the victim into repeated meetings at which the harassing attacks continue.

All the saved victims suffered serious psychological traumas, but even after extensive therapeutic treatment those traumas will accompany them for the rest of their lives [4].

Nowadays, in Ukraine there are no official effective mechanisms on cyber grooming prevention. From time to time it is possible to find such attempts of activists as educational seminars at schools, work of non-governmental organizations that might make an appointment with predators from the child’s name and development of special programs for parents’ control in the Internet by the biggest Ukrainian mobile and internet connection providers. However, without systematization and governmental help these actions will never be enough to fight with such an elusive phenomenon. Moreover, taking into consideration that cyber grooming is a crime without any borders and that predators and victims can locate in different jurisdictions, there is a high need of establishing new mechanisms of its prevention not only on national, but also on international dimension.

On the national level the following measures of prevention can be named:

• establishment of awareness campaigns that would provide children, parents, and educators the information necessary to protect against online predators. Nowadays, awareness and preventative measures are currently implemented and taught by organizations such as the Children’s Charities’ Coalition on Internet Safety and the Child Online Protection Initiative of the International Telecommunications Union;

• encouraging parents and children to take an active role by reporting suspicious behavior, websites hosting exploitative images, and efforts to recruit or «groom» children for sexual abuse;

• developing of the mechanisms to identify abused and/or exploited children;

• implementation of the domestic policy aiming to defend the security and privacy rights of children. Thus, for instance, the U.K. watchdog group, Internet Watch Foundation, has already successfully implemented a «notice and take-down» scheme that removes child sexual abuse content on U.K. networks when it is reported;

• inter-agency cooperation within the domestic system, creation of alliances of psychologists, police, and financial investigators, public and private sector collaboration, and the inclusion of civil society;

• amendment of legislation to the modern needs and criminalization of any use of information technologies to sexually harm or abuse of children.

On the international level it is possible to note such priorities:

• the need for more research in the field of cyber crime, the particular dangers to children, and the effects of online exploitation and abuse in order to develop further preventive tools;

• developing of engagement between States, including technical assistance and training on investigative tools with developing countries, mutual legal assistance regimes and timely exchange of evidence in criminal cases and rapid access to electronic data during criminal investigations;

• amendment of international legal framework to combat cyber crime against children.

Literature:

1. UN Economic and Social Council [ECOSOC], Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, 20th Sess., Discussion Guide for the Thematic Discussion on Protecting Children in a Digital age: The Misuse of Technology in the Abuse and Exploitation of Children, Note by the Secretariat, 14, U.N. Doc. E/CN.15/2011/1 (Jan. 31, 2011). – Electronic source: http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/commissions/CCPCJ/session/20.html

2. Yury Fedotov, Exec. Dir., U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime [UNODC], Opening Remarks at the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice. – Twentieth Meeting: Integrating Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice into the Global Security and Development Agenda (Apr.11, 2011). – Electronic source: http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/about-unodc/speeches/2011/April/2011-04-11-crimecommission-opening.html

3. Keith A. Petty. Protecting Children from Cyber Crime: The Twentieth Session of the UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice. – American Society of International Law. Insight. Volume 15, Issue 24 (September 1, 2011). – Electronic source: http://www.asil.org/pdfs/insights/insight110901.pdf

4. Berson, I. H. Grooming Cybervictims: The Psychosocial Effects of Online Exploitation for Youth. – University of South Florida. USA (2003). – Electronic source: http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~john/NetSafe/I.Berson.pdf

5. Child Exploitation and Online Protection Center. Official web-site. – Electronic source: http://ceop.police.uk/

6. Kim-Kwang Raymond Choo. Online child grooming: a literature review on the misuse of social networking sites for grooming children for sexual offences. – Australian Institute of Criminology, 2009. – Electronic resource: http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/current% 20series/rpp/100-120/rpp103.html

7. Mgr. Kamil Kopecky. Cyber Grooming – danger of Cyberspace. – NET UNIVERSITY s.r.o., 2010. – Electronic source: www.e-nebezpeci.cz