Meet Sweetie, the girl who catches online predators

By: Jose Vasquez

Sweetie entered a chat room, introduced herself as a 10-year-old from the Philippines, and the messages piled in from online predators requesting sexual acts.

The exchange began with the usual pleasantries — a hello or hi — but abruptly turned into a series of depraved questions and interactions. The Internet predators, mostly men, asked Sweetie to undress while others removed their clothes and fondled their genitals, according to the Terre des Hommes’ Webcam Child Sex Tourism report.

[caption id=”attachment_4523" align=”alignleft” width=”300"]

Philippine Virtual girl Sweetie created by Terre Des Homes to catch online predators. Photo Courtesy of says.com.[/caption]

Over 20,000 adults solicited webcam sex with Sweetie, yet only six offenders have been convicted for this crime, according to the report.

Terre des Hommes — a children’s rights advocacy organization — digitally designed Sweetie to identify adults who initiate contact with minors for webcam sex. Sweetie’s movements realistically imitate human behavior and her voice carries the innocence of a child. The organization refers to this form of human trafficking as webcam child sex tourism.

Christine White, a criminology and criminal justice lecturer, said this new strategy of using a virtual decoy to track Internet predators may help reduce child exploitation, but only temporarily.

“As human beings, we are really, really smart,” said White, “so once we figure out that we need to avoid a certain trap, we avoid it.”

White said although sting operations have aided in capturing criminals, many child predators interact with their victims in real life.

“Most sexual exploitation is still going to be in person, and is not — to a large degree — going to happen online,” she said.

Thien Pham, a junior economics major, said the sting operation criminalizes solicitors who haven’t engaged in sexual misconduct with an actual minor.

“Did they really do anything,” said Pham. “They’re busting the people for something they haven’t really done yet if the girl is virtual.”

But White said intent is enough to press charges.

“Even if the person isn’t real it doesn’t matter,” said White. “Think about the sting operations that happen, whether it’s drugs or prostitution, or what they started doing a lot on T.V. shows like ‘To Catch a Predator,’ with an adult posing as a child as opposed to a virtual person. It’s the same thing, so they can precede with charges because the person thought it was a child.”

The decoy identified 1,000 Internet predators — 254 of whom were from the United States, 110 from Britain, and 103 from India. Numbers in other nations remained in the double digits like Canada, where 54 predators were identified.

The organization then passed this information to law enforcement, according to the webcam child sex tourism report.

In July, Dominic Patrick Hickey pleaded guilty to charges of encouraging a child to perform an indecent act under Australian law. Hickey reportedly paid between $13 to $19 Australian dollars to watch girls from the Philippines engage in sex acts with men, reported the Australian Herald Sun.

In Australia, this charge carries a maximum sentencing of 15 years in prison. White said sentencing of the identified Internet predators will vary based on charges, but because the offense is considered a felony, prison sentences will be at least a year.

Vietmy Tran, a junior biology major, said using a computer-generated girl is a groundbreaking approach to finding sex offenders and an excellent preventative measure.

“It’s an innovative way to catch predators in the cyber world,” said Tran. “I hope organizations look into more creative ways to track down pedophiles before they commit a crime.”