However, online abuse can result in negative face-to-face consequences in the form of statutory rape, forcible sexual assault, harassment, etc.
This study found no distinction between genders with respect to harassment, but deduced that women were at risk for a wider variety of online abuse.[4][relevant?]
[not verified in body] In the United States this effort is led by the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.
[14] The same examination reported that 1 in 10 youths had damaging photos taken of themselves without their permission, and that girls are more likely to be involved with cyber-bullying than boys, both as bullies and as victims.
[14] A study in 2011 found three primary reasons for targeting others over the Internet: informal social control, dominance, and entertainment.
Dominance refers to the attempt(s) of hurting someone, humiliating someone, or gaining access to their personal information (secrets, explicit photos, etc.).
[21][22] In the United States, parents are encouraged to monitor their children's online activity and deal with cyber-bullying appropriately.
[23] Cases of cyber-bullying are difficult to pursue in the United States due to infringement on First Amendment rights (i.e.: freedom of speech).
[26] Most states have both anti-bullying laws and policies, save for Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Hawaii, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, and Texas.
Stopbullying.gov, a federal agency tasked with preventing all forms of bullying, has created a detailed list of state laws and policies.
An examples of a state anti-bullying campaign is the Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center, which provides curriculum to educators about cyber-bullying and its connection to bullying inside of schools.
[28][needs update] This prevention act sought to: Amend the federal criminal code to impose criminal penalties on anyone who transmits in interstate or foreign commerce a communication intended to coerce, intimidate, harass, or cause substantial emotional distress to another person, using electronic means to support severe, repeated, and hostile behavior.
The two forms may be used in combination, with groomers convincing children to perform these sexual acts, such as the sending of nude photographs, and then blackmailing the victim by threatening to release information about them.
[32] After establishing an online relationship, the groomer turns conversations to more personal matters, frequently sexual topics.
[33] In a 2012 literature review of research in the area conducted by various English scholarly institutions, it was found that 9% of Internet users aged 10–17 reported unwanted online sexual solicitation or attempted grooming.
Under section § 2422 of the United States Criminal Code:(a) Whoever knowingly persuades, induces, entices, or coerces any individual to travel in interstate or foreign commerce, or in any Territory or Possession of the United States, to engage in prostitution, or in any sexual activity for which any person can be charged with a criminal offense, or attempts to do so, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both.
(b) Whoever, using the mail or any facility or means of interstate or foreign commerce, or within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States knowingly persuades, induces, entices, or coerces any individual who has not attained the age of 18 years, to engage in prostitution or any sexual activity for which any person can be charged with a criminal offense, or attempts to do so, shall be fined under this title and imprisoned not less than 10 years or for life.
Chartier was eventually caught and faced 18 months in prison for various crimes, including, but not limited to, extortion, impersonation, and making threats.
[38] State legislatures, such as Illinois, have introduced language that specifically includes electronic or web-based methods of grooming into their laws.
"[40] In addition, Pandora's Protect is a nonprofit organization that aims to provide support to the victims of crimes such as online grooming and assault.
[contradictory][43] Children are often the targets of online sexual predators who will often bully, emotionally manipulate, blackmail, or befriend willing communicators on the web in order to obtain their desires.
[46] Predators troll chat rooms and other forms of social media like MySpace or Facebook, seeking people who outwardly share personal information.
[47] The FBI accomplishes quick response times by having agents scouring the Internet in search of perpetrators; they ask for information in forums and chat-rooms and look for the telltale signs of abusive behavior in the children they interact with.
Online sexual predators, however, are often difficult to distinguish because they show a misleading representation of themselves to avoid incriminating evidence.
[1] Another way to avoid unwanted sexual solicitations is to ignore, block, and report an offender to the website's management staff.
Child pornography violates this law, among others, because under this code, "Any obscene, lewd, lascivious, or filthy book, pamphlet, picture, motion-picture film, paper, letter, writing, print, or other matter of indecent character" may be subject to fine or imprisonment of up to five years.
Prosecutors have stated that a supremely close link between his child pornography activities had directly impacted his repeat, "molestation of children".
[49] In the wake of this scandal, affecting hundreds of women of a variety of ages, reforms have been made to further combat future occurrences of this abuse by USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University.