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Regulating Online Sexual Solicitation: Towards Evidence-Based Policy and Regulation

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Minding Minors Wandering the Web: Regulating Online Child Safety

Part of the book series: Information Technology and Law Series ((ITLS,volume 24))

Abstract

Even though concerns regarding the risks related to online sexual solicitation appear valid at face value, little is actually known about the consequences of online sexual solicitation or about how many children and youth actually come to harm as a result of online sexual solicitation. This means that important regulatory initiatives are developed without substantiating empirical evidence of the risk and protective factors that bear relevance to the actual conduct of victims and offenders. From a regulatory perspective, this raises several questions regarding the European regulatory strategies adopted to curtail online sexual solicitation. In this chapter we first describe the criminalisation of online sexual solicitation. Next, we present a review of recent empirical research on the prevalence and nature of online sexual solicitation and analyse what is known about the interrelationship between online sexual solicitation and psychosocial development. Subsequently, we discuss the relation between the EU legislation and the existing empirical research. On the basis of our discussion, we conclude that the sharing of knowledge between the fields of social science and law is essential to develop promising regulation strategies for protecting youth from harmful consequences of online sexual solicitation, without overly curtailing normal sexual exploration by adolescents.

The challenge is to protect children from rare but harmful occurrences without limiting the opportunities of the majority.

(Livingstone et al. 2011a, p. 42)

Leontien M. van der Knaap is Associate Professor at the International Victimology Institute Tilburg (INTERVICT) at Tilburg University. Colette Cuijpers is Assistant Professor at TILT—the Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology, and Society at Tilburg University.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Livingstone et al. 2011a.

  2. 2.

    Livingstone et al. 2011a, p. 12.

  3. 3.

    Eurobarometer 2008; Kierkegaard 2008.

  4. 4.

    Mitchell et al. 2001, p. 3012.

  5. 5.

    Livingstone et al. 2011a, p. 12; CHILDWISE Monitor Trends Report 2012, key trends; Europol Child Sexual Abuse Fact Sheet 2012, p. 5.

  6. 6.

    Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse (CETS 201). Available from: http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/Commun/QueVoulezVous.asp?NT=201&CM=1&DF=&CL=ENG.

  7. 7.

    Livingstone 2010; Livingstone and Haddon 2009.

  8. 8.

    Directive 2011/92/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 December 2011 on combating the sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children and child pornography, and replacing Council Framework Decision 2004/68/JHA, OJ 2011 L 335 of 2011-12-17, pp. 1–17. Corrigendum to Directive 2011/92/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 December 2011 on combating the sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children and child pornography, and replacing Council Framework Decision 2004/68/JHA, OJ 2012 L 18 of 2012-01-21, p. 7. This corrigendum states that the Directive is numbered Directive 2011/93/EU instead of 2011/92/EU. Directive available from: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2011:335:0001:01:EN:HTML.

  9. 9.

    Kool 2011, pp. 48–49.

  10. 10.

    E.g. Joint Action 2008/976/JHA and the Council Decision of 29 May 2000 to combat child pornography on the Internet. Available from: http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/justice_freedom_security/fight_against_trafficking_in_human_beings/l33138_en.htm.

  11. 11.

    Convention on Cybercrime, CETS No. 185. Available from: http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/en/Treaties/Html/185.htm.

  12. 12.

    Council framework Decision 2004/68/JHA of 22 December 2003 on combating the sexual exploitation of children and child pornography, OJ L013, 20/01/2004, pp. 0044–0048.

  13. 13.

    Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse (CETS 201). Available from: http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/Commun/QueVoulezVous.asp?NT=201&CM=1&DF=&CL=ENG.

  14. 14.

    The Directive must be implemented ultimately December 2013.

  15. 15.

    Koops 2009, p. 67.

  16. 16.

    Wolak et al. 2006.

  17. 17.

    Livingstone 2006.

  18. 18.

    Baumgartner et al. 2010.

  19. 19.

    Helweg-Larsen et al. 2012.

  20. 20.

    Medierådet 2010.

  21. 21.

    Kerstens and De Graaf 2012.

  22. 22.

    Livingstone et al. 2011b.

  23. 23.

    Livingstone et al. 2011b.

  24. 24.

    Kerstens and De Graaf 2012.

  25. 25.

    Wolak et al. 2004, 2008.

  26. 26.

    Noll et al. 2009.

  27. 27.

    Noll et al. 2009, p. 1082.

  28. 28.

    Wolak et al. 2004.

  29. 29.

    Baumgartner et al. 2010; Mitchell et al. 2008; Wolak et al. 2008.

  30. 30.

    Wolak et al. 2008.

  31. 31.

    Ybarra et al. 2007.

  32. 32.

    Wolak et al. 2008.

  33. 33.

    Noll et al. 2009.

  34. 34.

    Livingstone et al. 2011a.

  35. 35.

    Livingstone et al. 2011b.

  36. 36.

    Mitchell et al. 2001.

  37. 37.

    De Graaf and Vanweesenbeeck 2006.

  38. 38.

    Livingstone 2010.

  39. 39.

    Kerstens and De Graaf 2012.

  40. 40.

    Livingstone et al. 2011a.

  41. 41.

    Kerstens and De Graaf 2012.

  42. 42.

    Livingstone et al. 2011a.

  43. 43.

    Livingstone 2010.

  44. 44.

    Mitchell et al. 2007.

  45. 45.

    Mitchell et al. 2007.

  46. 46.

    Wells and Mitchell 2007.

  47. 47.

    Sumter et al. 2012.

  48. 48.

    See www2.lse.ac.uk/media@lse/research/EUKidsOnline/Home.aspx and www.european-online-grooming-project.com/.

  49. 49.

    Brown and Bobkowski 2011, p. 107.

  50. 50.

    Ost 2009.

  51. 51.

    Gooren 2011.

  52. 52.

    Koops 2009, p. 67.

  53. 53.

    Koops 2009.

  54. 54.

    Lessig 1999.

  55. 55.

    Clarke 1995, 1997.

  56. 56.

    Felson and Boba 2010, p. 177.

  57. 57.

    Clarke 1997; see also Felson and Boba 2010.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. INTERVICT, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands

    Leontien M. van der Knaap

  2. TILT Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology, and Society, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands

    Colette M. K. C. Cuijpers

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  1. Leontien M. van der Knaap
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  2. Colette M. K. C. Cuijpers
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Correspondence to Leontien M. van der Knaap .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. eLaw – Center for law in the information society, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Simone van der Hof

  2. eLaw – Center for law in the information, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Bibi van den Berg

  3. Faculty of Law eLaw – Centre for Law in the Information, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Bart Schermer

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van der Knaap, L.M., Cuijpers, C.M. (2014). Regulating Online Sexual Solicitation: Towards Evidence-Based Policy and Regulation. In: van der Hof, S., van den Berg, B., Schermer, B. (eds) Minding Minors Wandering the Web: Regulating Online Child Safety. Information Technology and Law Series, vol 24. T.M.C. Asser Press, The Hague. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6265-005-3_15

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