Children on the internet - a host of unknown dangers

The continuing Press reports of the past few weeks regarding sexual violence inflicted on teenagers through the internet have moved us to discuss the matter openly on our homepage. Ms. Beate Schöning, Journalist and head of the Net Kids organisation (www.kindersindtabu.de) has collected some shocking facts.
Whether it be at schools, at home, at friends or at an Internet Cafe, more and more kids are starting to use the internet. Most of the times this is done without parental guidance. Not only do the children do research for their homework, they also like to go into online chatting. All to easily, many of them fall victim to longing paedophile driven men and women.
On a daily basis, thousands of children and teenagers are verbally abused, receive unwanted pornographic images, are invited to meetings and given appointments for "Photo Shoots".
Unlike the past, where Paedophiles had to operate undercover, they can now express themselves freely on the internet. In kids chat rooms they can find the "human material" required to satisfy their vices.
Besides kids chat rooms, contact is also made via Email or through various messenger programmes (ICQ, AIM etc.). In most cases, the offenders find their victims through a filtered search using certain criteria. It is very difficult to estimate the exact amount of children abused on a daily bases on the internet. A rough estimate reckons that in could amount to many thousands. The offenders know no boundaries in their daily abuse of young victims.
There is little that the police of any other legal officials can do to put an end to this abuse. In many cases we are still lacking the appropriate laws. There is only a insignificant number of police officials (44 in Germany) conducting any proper internet research. Even if an offender is caught, the courts usually hand out a very insignificant punishment. The national German law is not properly equipped to deal with such cases. Even the proposed changes don't really cover the sexual threat on the internet. Up until now there is still no technical possibility to prevent the offenders from contacting their victims. Even filter programmes have been proven unsuccessful in this field.
Many chat victims have even been discovered even in Germany since 2000. In many cases complaints can not even be filed due to the laws inadequacies. In is also important to note, that even young males are amongst the victims.
The trading of picture and video child pornography has grown in leaps and bounds over the last few years. More and more offenders stop just being collectors and traders going in search of the real experience. In the last few years, many in "the scene" have started arranging meetings with the children already after the first contact.
Taking into consideration that the offenders have increased their abilities extremely over the last few years and that the victims are very unprotected, Net Kids views prevention as the only method available to rise against this problem. Parents and teachers who work with children on the internet need to be educated regarding prevention.
The internet is a colourful wonderland that enables everyone to slip into a different role.