Yahoo – AFP,
22 Oct 2014
 |
A
computer-generated 10-year-old Filipina called "Sweetie" was used to
identify
over 1,000 chuild sex predators around the world. An Australian man
has become the
first person convicted from the operation, the rights group
behind it said (AFP Photo)
|
Sydney
(AFP) - An Australian man caught in a global sting which used a virtual girl to
trap child sex predators has become the first person convicted from the
operation, the child rights group behind it said Wednesday.
Dutch
charitable organisation Terre des Hommes said in November last year it had used
a computer-generated Filipina girl -- dubbed "Sweetie" -- in Internet
chat rooms to ensnare paedophiles.
Over a
10-week period more than 20,000 predators from 71 countries approached the
virtual 10-year-old asking for webcam sex performances and more than 1,000
paedophiles had been identified as a result, it said at the time.
The group
has said that several offenders have since been arrested after the information
was passed onto police, including in Australia, Poland and the United States.
The
Australian is the first person to be convicted in the online sting, Terre des
Hommes' Jakarta-based Leny Kling told AFP.
"And
we hope that more will follow," she said.
Court
officials said 38-year-old Scott Robert Hansen had been sentenced on three
charges, including using a carriage service to transmit indecent communications
to a person aged under 16, and possessing child exploitation material on
Tuesday.
He was also
charged with failing to comply with a sex offenders order.
"He
was given a two-year sentence," a court spokeswoman told AFP, adding it
was suspended given the 260 days he had already been held in custody.
Australian
Federal Police are understood to have searched Hansen's home following a web
chat with "Sweetie" in which he was naked and masturbated,
news.com.au reported.
Terre des Hommes has said they did not approach anyone on the Internet but instead waited for people to approach Sweetie and ask for sex acts.
 |
Dutch
rights groups Terre des Hommes said in November last year it had used
a
computer-generated Filipina girl -- dubbed "Sweetie" -- in Internet
chat rooms to
ensnare paedophiles (AFP Photo)
|
Terre des Hommes has said they did not approach anyone on the Internet but instead waited for people to approach Sweetie and ask for sex acts.
The rights
group also stopped the conversation as soon as someone offered Sweetie money
for sex acts.
"Sweetie
attracted a lot of paedophiles," said Kling, adding that comments the
virtual girl attracted included 'Can you undress yourself?' and 'Can you show
your boobs to me?'.
Kling said
the group wanted to raise the alarm about webcam child sex tourism, a form of
child exploitation that has tens of thousands of victims in the Philippines
alone.
The problem
is also present in Cambodia and Thailand, she said.
"We
are just trying to prove with Sweetie that this is an iceberg problem,"
she said, adding that the large number of people caught in the sting in a short
time indicated the scale of the exploitation of children.
"It's
up to the FBI, up to Interpol, up to the Australian police force to take
action."
When the
sting was revealed in 2013, Terres de Hommes said its researchers found the
experience shocking.
"To
put yourself in the shoes of a 10-year-old Filipina girl and seeing what some
men want from you has been a shocking experience for them," said its head
of campaigns Hans Guyt.
"Some
demands and acts were really obscene."
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