Internet Seduction: Online Sex Offenders Prey on At-Risk Teens

Author(s): Bruce Bower

Source: Science News, Vol. 173, No. 8 (Feb. 23, 2008), p. 118
Published by: Society for Science & the Public
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20465238
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dividing. They may also determine whether
a particular cellular biochemical pathway
is affected, says Austin.
The agencies will initially focus on the
roughly 2,500 chemicals for which solid
data have been collected in previous stud
ies, the researchers say.
Historically, much testing involved inject
ing a chemical into an animal, watching to
see whether it got sick and then investigat
ing its tissue, says Francis Collins, director
of the NIH's National Human Genome
Research Institute (NHGRI). "It's slow,
expensive, and has limited predictive
power," says Collins. 'We are not rats."
But animal testing can't be abandoned
overnight, says Elias Zerhouni, director of
the NIH. Animal and human studies will
remain intertwined until the effects that
have been observed in previous studies are
validated, he says.
The memorandum of understanding for
the project outlines a 5-year effort com
bining the forces of two NIH agencies
NTP and NHGRI-and the EPAs recently
formed National Center for Computa
tional Toxicology. The high-speed robots
to be used in the project are from NIH's
Chemical Genomics Center. The EPA will
pull together the data, comparing the ani
mal and human studies.
Previously, there has been cross-agency
pollination on some projects, but each
group was guided by its respective priori
ties and budgets, saysAnne Miracle, a sen
ior research scientist with the Environ
mental Sustainability Division ofthe Pacific
Northwest National Laboratory in Rich
land,Wash. Now, she says, "It'svery heart
ening to see that these agencies are going
to pool their efforts."
The robotswill studyhuman cells andtest
chemicals on cells from model organisms
such as zebra fish and roundworms, which
are studied extensively for insight into bio
chemical reactions. -RACHELEHRENBERG
Internet
Seduction
Online sex offenders
on at-risk teens
prey
Widespread fears that online sexual pred
ators mainly target naive children are
accordingtoanew study
largelyinaccurate,
of Internet-initiated sex crimes.
118 FEBRUARY
23,2008VOL.
173
AT RISK New research suggests that online sex offenders usually target psychologically
vulnerable teens, especially girls, for seduction Into sexual relationships.
Instead, the vast majority of online sex
offenders are adults who contact vulner
able 13- to 17-year-olds and seduce them
into sexual relationships, says a team led
by lawyer and sociologist Janis Wolak of
the University of New Hampshire in
Durham. In other words, Internet sex
crimes usually represent cases of statutory
rape, involving the exploitation of teens
legally defined as too young to consent to
sexwith adults. Forcible sexual assault and
child molestation represent only a small
minorityofonline-initiatedsexcrimes,the
team reports in the February-March
American Psychologist.
"The things that we hear and fear about
Internet sex crimes and the things that actu
ally occur may not be the same;'Wolak says.
In 2000, Internet-initiated sex crimes
accounted for about 7 percent of reported
statutory rapes in the United States, the
investigators estimate. That proportion
has probably grown since then with
increased Internet use and better law
enforcement training regarding Internet
crimes, the team notes.
Wolak and her colleagues consulted
data gathered via phone interviews in
2000 and 2005 from national samples
that totaled 3,000 Internet users, ages
10 to 17.The researchers also conducted
612 interviews with federal, state, and
local law-enforcement officials from
October 2001 to July 2002. Interviews
focused on officials' knowledge of Inter
net-related sex crimes that targeted chil
dren and teens.
The patterns for how offenders reach the
victims suggest that existing educational
programs for children and teens may not
be effective, the scientists suggest. For
instance, theyfound thatteens'use of social
networking sites such as MySpace and
Facebook did not increase their likelihood
of being contacted by a sex offender.
Instead,adult offendersprimarilyuse
instant messages, e-mail, and chat rooms
to meet and develop intimate relation
ships with adolescent victims, the scien
tists say. Offenders promise victims
romanceand interpersonalconnection
but exploit them for sex.
youthsoftenhave
Particularlyvulnerable
a background of sexual or physical abuse,
depression, delinquency, or serious family
problems, Wolak says. They also take vari
ous risks, such as talking to unknown peo
ple online about sex and seeking porno
graphy on the Internet.
Three-quarters of the victims of sex
crimes studied in the new report were girls.
The researchers found that male victims
typically described themselves in online
communications as gay or as questioning
their sexual orientation.
Existingeducationalprogramsdiscour
age children from sharing or posting per
sonal information online, warn about
deceptive online messages, and urge par
ents to monitor children's Internet use.
Wolak recommends that prevention efforts
also teach teens how adults can seduce them
into sexual relationships and how to rec
ognize appropriate and inappropriate types
of communication from adults.
The new findings fitwith evidence that
many teens discuss romantic and sexual
interests in online chat rooms, remarks
psychologist Kaveri Subrahmanyam of
California State University, Los Angeles.
However, most teens use online forums
to extend relationships with friends from
daily life, she notes.
"An adolescent not interacting online a
with offline contacts is a red flag of sorts," ?
Subrahmanyam says. -BRUCE BOWER
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