One in 30 young girls online target
Wednesday 21st July 2010, 3:00PM BST.
Young girls are being targeted online
NEW police figures have revealed worrying statistics about the danger of online paedophiles targeting young children and a sharp rise in anti-social behaviour.
Released this week, the States Police annual report also reveals that instances of domestic violence have risen.
• Read more in today’s Jersey Evening Post
Read the full story in the Jersey Evening Post. Click here for subscription details. Individual editions are also available online.
Travel
To, from and around the Island
Airport Arrivals & Departures
Harbours Arrivals & Departures
Bus Information & Timetables
JOIN US ON...
Facebook and Twitter
Follow us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
Got a story? Get in touch
BIRD WATCH 2012
Click here to record your results
The 11th Great Garden Bird Watch took place over the weekend, Saturday 4 and Sunday 5 February. JEP readers were asked to get on board to help monitor bird life in the Island.
This is Jersey
Jersey Evening Post
Useful links
There is a simple solution here, just stop young children going on the Internet. They will never get on top of these predators whilst they allow children to go online.
Report abuse
Here we go again! Same old unaccountable political tactics to acquire extra policing or censorship powers and to increase their spending – here’s how it is done:
Number One: – Create or hype up a problem – kids at risk on the internet.
Number Two: – Hypocritically campaign against it with lots of noise – scare everyone into believing their kids are about to abducted by a sex maniac.
Number Three: – Then deviously fold in some bureaucratic censorship ot unwarranted surveillance along with a few more Internet restrictions into the Government solution – in short use the hyped up problem to acquire more power and get their hands on more Public Funds – politicians and civil servants do this all the time.
As for the problem, we have more than enough tools on the law books to deal with it – when what is really needed is an overall increase in personal responsibility – the more dependent people become on government, the worse off they become!
Report abuse
Its says ”New POLICE Figures” and then ”YOUNG CHILDREN” But there appears to be one very important word missing, ……… is it not the correct procedure for ”PARENTS” to ”POLICE” their ”YOUNG CHILDREN” in all social matters both in and away from the home, including that of the internet, or have i got this totally wrong?
Report abuse
Does the phrase ‘Culture of Fear? seem perfect for this story?
Report abuse
If one in thirty females under the age of 16 in Jersey, are being targeted by paedophiles, why aren’t we seeing more convictions?
They only way to deter this sort of behaviour is to lock these perverts up.
I agree with Jersey Bull # 2; we do have the laws to deal with these problems, however not everyone has the nouse to protect their children so education and awareness programmes, by social services and the police are necessary.
Report abuse
It’s such a terrible world out there…..how do we ever manage to lead our normal daily lives without fear when there is such terror around us??!!
Oh, I know, because perhaps this is just more governMENTAL scaremongering…….where are all these perverts if they can boldly state these figures and why aren’t they being cautioned?
I am more afraid of our corrupt government than any scapegoat the authorities concoct to deflect our suspicions away from them.
Report abuse
While I won’t dispute the statistics, the children are still at more risk from family and family friends, and those people usually have unrestricted access to the children, so I hope this doesn’t draw the parents’ attention away from where the biggest threat lies.
It can be difficult to protect your children from family and friends while maintaining good relationships, but internet safety? Let your children use one family computer and keep it in a public room, it’s really not rocket science.
Report abuse
#5 Blue Knight, I’m sure you’re aware that if the children are under 16 that does not automatically make the predator a paedophile. And since their is a distinct difference between paedophiles and other types of sex predators it really is about time the media started using the correct terminology in their reports. Parents are already getting it all wrong about who is the biggest threat to their children, it’s got to be better for their children that they are corrected quick smart.
Report abuse
Giving us the freedom of information act it seems will be balanced with more powers to police our information.
I agree with Jersey Bull 2 this is a way of preparation for more funds and powers to invade our privacy.
It might as well say 1 in 30 youngsters are targets for drug pushers.
Numbers on the number of adults being monitored for internet abuse by the police would be a better estimate of police activity in this area.
This is just fear factory statistical nonsensical estimation of potential threat.
Report abuse
Kat in no3 touches on an important point – parents are responsible for their children and need to guide them in their early years. The breakdown of the traditional family is at the root of so many problems in our society. More should be done to help and protect families with tax breaks and other financial help for them.
Report abuse
#10 Ned, family breakdown is not about money and I would object to more taxpayer’s money being given out to families (it just encourages more families after all). Families breakdown because of human failings like rushing into things, having children to try and ‘fix’ a relationship, selfishness, greed etc. The way to combat that is educating society that they cannot always get what they want, about compromise, and that if you choose to have children that’s your decision and you give up your life for them. It comes down to how the parents themselves were raised. If they were raised properly then it is less likely their own family will breakdown! As it is we now have a generation who think having children won’t change their lifestyle and they won’t have to make any sacrifices (the media tell us we CAN have it all!), and so they don’t and it is the children that suffer.
You can be financially poor and still be a great parent, in fact it’s often the rich that are worse parents.
Report abuse
Leah Holmes # 8. It is a number of years now since I retired from the police, following over 30 year’s service.My knowledge of the law is somewhated dated, however I believe I am right in saying, that the offence of posessing pornographic images of children relates to boys and girls under the age of 16.
There are offences of unlawful sexual intercourse with a girl under 16 and the more serious offence of unlawful sexual intercourse with a girl under 13. Also boys under 16 can not in law consent to sexual activities. Of course I am not so naive to believe this doesn’t occur and in some European countries the age of consent is lower.
The possession of pornographic images of children under 16, has often been seen as a precursor for more sinister action. This is the view of many psychologists, who have expertise in understanding this type of behaviour and who advise the Government on the legislation. In my unqualified opinion – and it is only my opinion – 16 is the right age. Also in my experience the sort of person who keeps pornographic images / pictures of children under that age, often graduates to other sexual offences.
The local police’s ability to monitor such activities, through liaison with the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOPS) in the U.K.is essential. It is also necessary to continually carry out education and awareness programmes for children, parents, guardians and teachers, to help people make decisions to prevent harm coming to young people.
Whilst I agree the statistics in the news report might seem alarmist, it is useful to know what is occurring. The question is however, what actions are the police and social services taking, to prevent sex predators harming children and young people?
Schemes for the prevention of (or more realistically reduction of)and / or deterrence against this type of behaviour, are the key to safeguarding children and young people.
I would hope that the majority of people in the island want the very best that can be achieved by it’s police and social services.
We need to forget the the H de la G faux pas and concentrate what is realistic and achievable. I hope to see many more arrests of child abusers in the island, with the assistance of CEOPS monitoring the internet.
Report abuse
Lock up your computers away from your children unless the parent can monitor what they do on the internet. (Same as monitoring what they watch on TV). Any sensible parent would already have ‘checks & balances’ in place to properly bring up their children. Those parents who ‘party’ must expect the inevitable to happen to their children and expect the sad consequences, but please don’t point fingers at the law when this happens, as YOU have shirked your responsibility in taking the time to raise your children properly!
Report abuse
#12 You’re right about the legal status regarding the images of children under 16, but legally and diagnostically the term ‘paedophilia’ only relates to crimes against pre-pubescent children. Obviously, for legal reasons, countries need to put an age on this and in the UK it is 12, although I believe there is some flexibility given to the courts if the victim has a developed figure and looks a lot older.
I only make the distinction because paedophilia is very distinct from other sex crimes. There is absolutely no cure for it, and regardless of how society wants to view paedophiles, paedophiles genuinely believe that their ‘love’ is requited by the child. Understanding that explains why there is no cure. Other sex offenders know that their actions are unwanted and choose to do the wrong thing, the issue with paedophiles is much more complex. Our only hope of stopping paedophiles offending is serious education that what their brain is perceiving is not the truth, followed up with serious monitoring.
Currently there are paedophiles who have accepted that their behaviour is wrong and who go out of their way to avoid situations where they may offend again, but society is not set up to assist them in avoiding these situations, nor can society jail them indefinitely (apparently this would be against the law since they cannot be rehabilitated or treated?).
And so society continues to perceive people without children as more likely to be paedophiles, when in fact most paedophiles have children of their own.
As such the only hope we have is educating the parents that the true risk to their child is brothers (around 30% of paedophiles are brothers to their victim), followed by other family members, followed by family friends, and the lowest risk are other people that their children come into regular contact with (teachers, doctors etc). At the moment parents are ignoring this and demonising strangers. This is not in the children’s best interests. As it is I will no longer go to assist an injured child or one that is lost unless there are many others around to back me up that I did nothing untoward. Parents need to accept the truth about the biggest risk and keep a watchful eye on family interactions while still maintaining good family relationships.
On top of that the children need to be educated that NO-ONE has the right to touch them in certain ways and that they should immediately tell another adult if such a thing occurs (this education should be carried out in a non-alarmist way), then the adult can judge whether the behaviour was appropriate to the situation (maybe carried out during a medical investigation) or not.
Paedophiles ‘didn’t exist’ back when I was a victim of child abuse. Had I (and my parents) had the right education on such matters I daresay it would never have happened.
We have come a long way but as long as parents feel happier ignoring the truth we will never make any real inroads into child abuse, it is just too easy for family members to manipulate a child from a very young age.
Report abuse
Leah # 14. Having read your well written submission I feel totally inadequate with my dated knowledge of the subject. I had experience of investigating child abuse and naively surmised that all men who targeted boys and girls under 16, were paedophiles. I will however bow to your better knowledge, that paedophilia involves crimes against pre-pubescent children.
The late Ray Wyre – one of the world’s leading experts on understanding sexual crime – visited Jersey in the early 1990s. He was involved in training police officers and social workers in the Island. He once told me that he didn’t believe paedophiles could be rehabilitated. If I recall correctly, he said that in the majority – if not all – cases, paedophiles believed their desires were perfectly normal, in the same way heterosexuals, bisexuals and homosexuals believed their sexual drives were normal.
Whatever the truth, I know that victims of child abuse, can and often do suffer a huge amount of physical and psychological damage. Some learn to rebuild their lives whereas others are affected throughout their lives.
There was a police officer – now retired- who had been a victim of Edward Paisnel – the so called Beast of Jersey. He evidently managed to pick himself up and had a successful career. I know of other of Paisnel’s victims however, who seemed to never recover.
Many victims never report what happened to them and suffer psychological damage throughout their lives. They often commit crimes themselves, particularly sexual offences – the so called cycle of offending. Many are also involved in crimes of violence and domestic abuse.
The internet perpetuates the problem, with the ease that images can be distributed and stored and the ability abusers have to groom potential victims.
I hope that the Island can put the Haut de la Garenne farce in perspective and that the police now get on with dealing with what is realistic and achievable. Education and awareness programmes are pivotal in deterring and reducing the problem of child abuse, but so too is robust enforcement.
Report abuse
#15 Blue Knight, I’m unsure as and when the law got clarified on the issue but I know that medically paedophilia is crime against pre-pubescent people and that every country’s legal system has had to decide on an age at which to decide that someone is a ‘child’ in that sense of the word. It will presumably change over time as children reach physical maturity sooner.
My friend worked in the Scottish Prison Service for many years and her area was rehabilitation of sex offenders (including paedophiels). Like Ray Wyre, she also came to the conclusion that paedophiles cannot be rehabilitated, but some sex offenders can, because the motivation for the attack is totally different. I am not making any judgement on homosexuals, just using recent changes in the law regarding homosexuality as an example. Telling a paedophile that what they are doing is unnatural is like telling a homosexual that what they are doing is unnatural. It is feelings that cause them to do what they do, and it is hard to tell someone that their feelings are unnatural.
Sex offenders are very much choosing to offend, paedophiles are having to constantly choose to not offend.
Report abuse
It is a common journalistic trait to sensationalise such stories by using the emotive word ‘paedophile’.
Generally, paedophilia is regarded as a psychiatric disorder where the person has a sexual attraction to pre-pubescent children.
Hebephilia is categorised when a person has a sexual attraction to 11 – 14 year olds.
Ephebophilia refers to a sexual preference for mid to late adolescents, generally aged 15 – 17 years.
However, countries around the world, or even in Europe, differ greatly on the issue of what the correct age of consent is. In Tunisia for instance the age of consent is 20. To a Tunisian we in the UK are all sexually immoral. In Italy it is 14 and in the Philipines it is 12 – oddly the same as the Vatican State!
It does seem to be common throughout the world that peadophilia is illegal, although Hebephilia and Ephebophilia is not necessarily.
http://www.avert.org/age-of-consent.htm
Blue Knight, you ask why there are not more convictions if one in thirty females under the age of 16 in Jersey, are being targeted by paedophiles.
I suggest that the very nature of the internet means that most of the predators are not based in Jersey. The article is a bit misleading as it suggests that these girls are being targeted by local paedophiles. This is very unlikely and the predators may not be paedophiles at all but, instead, one of the other categories.
It is possible that in the country they live in, they may not be committing an offence at all if, for instance, the guy lives in the Vatican City.
Report abuse
Addendum: I should have said ‘The article is a bit misleading as it suggests that these girls are being targeted EXCLUSIVELY by local paedophiles’
Report abuse
I like shooting.
I target all the rabbits in Jersey.
The only ones with a realistic chance of getting shot are the ones in my garden.
“Targetting” is a meaningless word.
And isn’t it better that paedos target kids online rather than hang around Millbrook park.
They can’t be cured. We should castrate them. Like they do in France.
Paedos, that is. Not rabbits. You can’t castrate rabbits. There are too many of them and they breed.
Report abuse
Do pre-pubescent children in Jersey really have unsupervised access to chat rooms and social networking sites?
Where are their parents?
Report abuse
Reg ltarian # 17 and 18. I am glad that there have been some sensible and thought provoking entries on this discussion board. Your contribution was highly informative.
You are of course right, the J.E.P. article infers that the offenders are based in Jersey, whereas they could just as easily be elsewhere. I should have realised – assumption is the mother of all faux pas.
Report abuse
Brian
unfortunatly castration does not stop offending. although it may well stop an erection, sex offenders will still go on to offend in other ways.
we have a serious problem and the only way of dealing with this is to break the cycle of behavour. if we give an offender automatic life in prison this is no different to the penalty for murder and the expression ‘you might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb springs to mind.
Report abuse
Your analogy with rabbits does not sit quite straight with me, although I understand where you are coming from.
Predators (I am reluctant to call them all paedophiles) on the internet might be happy to shoot the rabbits in their garden while simply fantasising about shooting rabbits elsewhere.
However, there are some predators who will groom rabbits from other fields, even fields in a foreign country, with a view to entice the rabbits into his/her garden or, alternatively, arrange to meet the rabbit in their own field or on neutral ground.
The Millbrook Park type predator has, I would suggest, a different modus operandi altogether.
Report abuse
#22 ‘if we give an offender automatic life in prison this is no different to the penalty for murder and the expression ‘you might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb springs to mind.’
Not particularly apt. For a start, nobody is being hanged (rather than hung) for either offence. It is too facile an argument to infer that the sentence might encourage murder.
Secondly, an offender with unusual tastes for sexual activity might even be rewarded by a lifetime in prison surrounded by opportunities, albeit with less variety, without further need to worry about earning a living as well.
Report abuse
RB Bougaurd
Thank you for the grammar lesson, although valuable input for the debate appears to stop at that point.
You appear to be missing what is a very simple observation, the expression grammatically incorrect or not identifies the danger (whether with the death penalty or otherwise as a consequence) of having the same penalty for a number of offences.
More seriously you are completely off-base when it comes to the behavior of sex offenders; ‘unusual tastes for sexual activity’ as you put it tends not to be on a pick and mix basis. An offender sentenced for sexual offences against children might not reasonably be expected to be able to pursue those tastes at Her Majesty’s Pleasure and will certainly find him or herself at the bottom of the pecking order in prison society with inevitable consequences free food or otherwise.
Report abuse
It is well known, Boris, that people who have a strong sex drive will take up whatever options are available to them when imprisoned. It’s only ‘pick and mix’ when the sweet shop is open. In prison it’s “Beggars (or something similar) can’t be choosers” but if they need gratification they are unlikely to go short.
Regarding my pedantry, how else do you expect people to learn the difference between ‘hung’ and ‘hanged’, surely not by common misuse being ignored? Must go soon, got a picture to hang, but before that…
You appear to be missing my observation that
it is too facile an argument to infer that the threat of a life sentence for offences other than murder might encourage murder. But it’s a useful argument for vilifying and targetting ‘offenders’ who might never do anything more than fantasise or let curiosity get the better of them on the internet. In other words “Better stop them in their tracks before they end up murdering a victim”.
Nobody seems to worry about those who watch vicious and violent films, though. They are deemed sensible enough not to go out and do likewise.
The ‘sheep v. lamb’ proverb is from a different era and remains witty but largely irrelevant.
I fully agree with the posters who blame the parents for not supervising their children.
No one seems to ask why there is so much opportunity for these activities on the internet or, indeed, why the motivation exists to host the facilities that are used by the children and the abusers.
The solution lies in the reduction of interest in, and fascination for, these activies rather than constantly hyping them up.
The growth of the paedophiliaphobia industry must be one of the greatest gifts in recent years to the tabloid press and others who have benefitted financially or politically from its emergence.
Report abuse