The stereotype of a pedophile masquerading as a teen on the Internet to stalk naive young victims is not only false, it's also distracting parents, educators and policy makers from addressing the sex crimes that are being initiated via the Internet, according to a new paper.

Almost all online-initiated sex crimes involve adults openly seducing teenaged victims into sexual relationships, according to data culled from two surveys of 3,000 Internet users aged between 10 and 17 and one involving more than 2,000 U.S. federal, state and local law-enforcement agencies, most specializing in sex crimes against minors.

Internet offenders pretended to be teenagers in only 5 per cent of the crimes studied by researchers at the University of New Hampshire's Crimes Against Children Research Center. They also found that nearly 75 per cent of victims who met offenders face to face did so more than once. Very few cases involved violence, stalking or abduction.

...
The researchers say it's premature to talk about the Internet as an established facilitator of sex crimes outside of the possession and distribution of child pornography. However, they still still recommend prevention and public policy for high risk teen behaviour online.

Read the complete article here:

Few pedophiles posing as youths online
by Tralee Pearce
Globe and Mail