The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) provided funding to Dr. David Finkelhor, Director of the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire, to conduct a research survey in 1999 on Internet victimization of youth.
His research was cited by the United States Department of Justice as "the best profile of this problem to date".
Crimes Against Children Research Center staff interviewed a nationally representative sample youth, aged 10 to 17, who used the Internet regularly.
This is potentially misleading, since some have interpreted this as implying adults soliciting offline sexual contact from children.
The same survey found that none of the solicitations led to an actual sexual contact or assault.
Unwanted exposure to sexual material: Without seeking or expecting sexual material, being exposed to pictures of naked people or people having sex when doing online searches, surfing the web, opening E-mail or instant messages, or opening links in E-mail or instant messages.