Children and Minors Online Tips

Definition of a word "Pedophilia"

Pedophilia (Greek παιδοφιλία παις, child) and (φιλία, love, friendship) is a tendency to sexually exploit children of the same, opposite, or both sexes. Due to the severity of the consequences, such bias is strictly legally punishable in all countries.

Pedophilia is a form of personality disorder. This is where the wrong choice of sexual object occurs, and these are most often children. It can be heterosexual and homosexual. The disorder is less common in women. Heterosexual pedophiles choose children aged 8 to 10, while a homosexual pedophile chooses an older age. Sexual abuse of minors is any form of exploitation of persons under the age of 18 for the purpose of sexual gratification by an elderly person. It may include telephone conversations, asking a minor to show intimate body parts or showing an intimate body part by an adult to a child or minor, caressing, taking pornographic photographs of sexual abuse of children or minors and showing pornographic material, attempting to commit sexual acts. relations with minors, incest with a child or a minor, rape of a child or a minor, coercion into prostitution and the like.

DEFINITION OF CHILD AND MINOR

A child is defined in criminal law as a person who has not reached the age of fourteen.

A minor is considered to be between the ages of fourteen and eighteen.

PROTECTION METHOD:

The basic form of protection of minors from abuse for pornographic purposes is contained in the Criminal Code applicable in the Republic of Serbia.

Article 185

Showing, obtaining and possessing pornographic material and exploiting children for pornography.

1. Whoever sells, displays or otherwise makes available to a minor texts, images, audio-visual or other objects of pornographic content or shows him a pornographic performance to a minor, shall be punished by a fine or imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months.
2. Whoever uses a minor for the production of images, audio-visual or other objects of pornographic content or for a pornographic performance, shall be punished by imprisonment for a term between six months and five years.
3. If the act referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2 of this Article was committed against a child, the perpetrator shall be punished for the act referred to in paragraph 1 by imprisonment for six months to three years, and for the act referred to in paragraph 2 from one to eight years in prison.
4. Whoever acquires for himself or another, possesses, sells, publicly exhibits or electronically or otherwise makes available images, audio-visual or other objects of pornographic content created by the exploitation of a minor shall be punished by imprisonment for a term between three months and three years.
5. Subjects from paragraph 1 and paragraph 4. of this article shall be deducted.

Article 185a.

Inducing a minor to attend sexual activities.

1. Whoever induces a minor to attend rape, prostitution or an act equated with it or other sexual activity shall be punished by imprisonment for a term between six months and five years and by a fine.
2. If the act referred to in paragraph 1 was committed by the use of force or threat, or against the child, the perpetrator shall be punished by imprisonment for a term between one and eight years.

Article 185b

Exploitation of a computer network or communication by other technical means for the commission of criminal offenses against sexual freedom against a minor.

1. Who intends to commit the criminal offenses of Rape, Prostitution of an Infirm Person, Proclamation of a Child, Prostitution of Abuse of Office, Illegal Sexual Intercourse, Pimping or Enabling Sexual Intercourse, Mediation in Prostitution, Showing, Obtaining and Possessing Pornographic Material and Exploitation of Children and inducing a minor to attend sexual activities, using a computer network or communicating by other technical means, arranges a meeting with the minor and appears at the agreed place for the meeting shall be punished by imprisonment for six months to five years and a fine.
2. hoever commits the act referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article against a child shall be punished by imprisonment for a term between one and eight years.

IMPORTANT!

The most important changes are that for the first time in the Criminal Code of the Republic of Serbia, possession and acquisition of images, audio-visual or other objects of pornographic content created by the exploitation of a minor is considered a criminal offense.

According to our legislation, a child is a person who has not reached the age of 14 and a minor is a person who has not reached the age of 18 (a younger minor from 14 to 16 and an older minor from 16 to 18).

Namely, according to the Convention on Computer Crime from 2001, which our country ratified and applied in its Criminal Code and conventions dealing with the protection of children's rights, this problem is placed in the focus of interest of the European and world public. it is about computer crime and organized crime in general. Examples are countries such as France, USA, Great Britain, Germany, but also our country - the Republic of Serbia.

In our country, the perpetrators of these crimes are persons from all social structures, so there is no profile of the perpetrators of these crimes in that sense.

The motives for committing these crimes are also wide-ranging and are subject to psychological profiling of perpetrators on a case-by-case basis.

Juveniles appear as victims of these crimes, often not even aware of what is happening to them, since the perpetrators use their trust and commit crimes under specific circumstances, most often when they fully gain the trust of the victim, so they are very difficult to detect.

The perpetrators can also be from a close circle of family, relatives or friends in which the child is, when methods of intimidation are often used by threatening to tell the authorities (parents) "what the child is doing" that harm will be done to children close to the child. if they do not agree to certain actions, etc. Also, the trust of minors for the purpose of committing criminal acts is gained by paying special attention to them, using situations in which they feel loved, buying them various gifts, etc.

With the advent of the Internet and the ever-faster way of exchanging multimedia content, the material created by the exploitation of minors for pornographic purposes is available to the general public, i.e. the whole world in just a few seconds. Behind such content, there are often criminal groups that try to make money in this way, using the "demand" for such material, and if it turns out that they can make money by committing these crimes, the circle of minors who become victims is expanding. As images created in this way appear on the Internet, they quickly become available on other Internet sites that advertise such content within minutes. Unfortunately, children experience the same traumas in this way with the appearance of such shots every time they appear, and even many years after they grow up.

In addition to the emergence of Internet sites where the material was created by exploiting minors for pornographic purposes, harassment of children is becoming more and more known as online grooming (harassment via SMS, phone or Internet service) because the perpetrator often hides behind a false identity. child and with false information).

In such cases, the perpetrators, within the communication through the Internet service or through social services such as (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) present themselves as persons who are similar to the profile that the child is looking for, enter into communication with him, try to gain trust. in various ways and then to exchange photos with pornographic content, for example, for the child to take a picture of himself, all the way to extreme situations in which they ask for concrete contact with the child when the perpetrators schedule meetings, often committing serious crimes against full freedoms and against the life and body of a minor.

There are also services on the Internet where there is the possibility of audio-visual communication, such as MSN or SKYPE, which provide a "more intimate atmosphere" to the perpetrators of these crimes in order to more easily meet potential victims and obtain illegal content by falsely presenting.

The use of Internet cameras can be a potential danger because often the perpetrators of these crimes, as well as video material created during the use of cameras (if they ask a person to take a picture naked, in explicit poses ...) are stored on their computers and then posted on forums. or sites that contain material created by the exploitation of minors for pornographic purposes, etc.

One of the new forms of committing these crimes is the creation of images and audio-visual material using mobile phones and then the exchange via MMS service.

Photographs of minors taken for the purpose of modeling often end up on Internet sites that contain material created by exploiting minors for pornographic purposes, as well as on various forums where the said content is exchanged.

In the mentioned criminal offenses, there is a large dark number, ie there is a large number of unreported perpetrations of these criminal offenses.

The dominant reasons for not reporting are the patriarchal environment, fear of parents, fear of threats from perpetrators of criminal acts.

USEFUL TIPS:

Tips for parents:

• Strive to protect children from unpleasant experiences - show them how to protect their own privacy and respect the privacy of others.
• Teach children not to respond to suspicious messages.
• Help the children understand what messages can cause unpleasant feelings.
• Make sure that children can block the reception of messages from a specific sender.
• Save the messages, they can serve as important evidence.
• Stay in touch with people around your child - meet his friends, their parents, teachers and the environment in general.
• Teach your child to inform you about every virtual real world experience that worries him. Convince him that he can trust you even when he carelessly does something bad and that you will look for a solution together.
• Explain to the child that if someone disturbs him, it is never his fault.
• To create secure profiles, with which they can protect their privacy.
• To protect your password.
• To react only to the messages of people they know from life outside the Internet and only to address those people.
• If they want to publish their own or a picture of their family on the Internet, the houses should consult their parents about it.
• Private information (phone number, address, school, sports club, etc.) should not be entered in various questionnaires on the sites or given to unknown people.
• Establish a relationship based on trust with your children.
• Reassure them that they can talk to you about their mistakes, because that's the only way you can find a solution together! Learning errors are normal.
• On the home pages of social networks (facebook, twitter ...) there are rules for their use, tips and the age limit for using networks.

Advice for minors:

• Do not send messages, photos or other material that could harm someone, send pictures only to people you know personally and trust and only after consultation with parents.
• Do not leave personal information to strangers.
• Ignore strangers who want to make contact with you and do not accept meetings with those people.
• On the home pages of social networks (facebook, twitter ...) there are rules for their use, tips and the age limit for using networks.

REMARK:

There are a large number of professional materials on the Internet related to the fight against this phenomenon, which are used for education and can be used freely. This material is represented by newspaper articles, professional scientific papers, conference reports and the like.