Sweetie: An Australian, the first pedophile to be convicted of acts that he dealt with not a true man but an ... avatars
"My name is Sweetie (Gulkoula). I am 10 years old and I live in the Philippines. Every day I sit in front of my computer's camera and talk to men: 10, sometimes 100 at a time. They're asking me to take out my clothes. They also get rid of them ".
It is a confession that undoubtedly shocks. Fortunately, however, Sweetie is not a ten year old girl, as she claims when she is recommended to her interlocutors.
It is an avatar (s.s. so called the graphic representation of a person) or, more simply, a software posing as a minor.
Its purpose is to "fish" pedophiles who try to satisfy their appetites thinking that they have to do with real children (as, unfortunately, it happens many times).
"What they do not know is that I'm not true. I am a computerized system specifically designed to identify the people who are doing these acts ", says Sweetie.
"Glykoula" was born in the workshops of the Dutch non-governmental organization Terre des Hommes. To date, she has "chatted" with thousands of men from all over the world who ask her to go to sex in front of her webcam, thinking it's true.
Until now, these people have remained unpunished. Last Tuesday, however, an Australian became the first pedophile in the world to be convicted of acts that he dealt with not a true man, but an ... avatars.
His name is Robert Scott Hansen and is 38 years old. Brisbane's court sentenced him to two years in prison, ruling him guilty of charges of sexual abuse of children.
"Hi, are you really nine years old?" Hansen asked Sweetie at the beginning of their dialogue. When she got a positive response, she didn't waste any time: “I like Asian goats. Are you in for some action? I'm naked. Have you ever seen a naked man? " said, among many others, to the ten-year-old girl.
According to the judge, it does not matter whether he was a real child or computer software. What matters is that the perpetrator thought it had to do with a Filipino child.
Sweetie enters chatrooms and "loves" pedophiles who surf the Internet to reach young children.
Within just 10 weeks about 200.000 men from 71 countries came into contact with her. According to its creators, most of them are people "above all suspicion": they have family and children, good work, and are of high income and educational attainment.
In Hansen's case the organization Terre des Hommes recorded all the "talks» του με τη Sweetie, όπως επίσης και τις κινήσεις του μπροστά στην κάμερα και παρέδωσε το material στην αυστραλιανή police.
Sweetie's action was launched as part of a campaign to end the so-called "webcam touring" (men enter the Internet and pay children from developing countries to perform sexual acts on the camera).
The objections
Some, however, do not agree with this practice. Terry Garman, chairman of the Australian Civil Liberties Council, said that the use of such avatars by private organizations is "overturned" and equates to unceasing policing.
In Britain, some groups identify themselves as "pedophile hunters" and publicly expose those who believe they are involved in pedophilia acts before informing the police.
Last year, British police warned that these "hunters" often destroy the lives of innocent people - some of whom are committing suicide - and prevent the real culprits from being identified.
Source: tovima.gr
