Sextortion of Minors: Characteristics and Dynamics.

Purpose: Sextortion (threats to expose sexual images to coerce victims to provide additional pictures, sex, or other favors) has been identified as an emerging online threat to youth, but research is scarce. We describe sextortion incidents from a large sample of victims (n = 1,385) and examine whether incidents occurring to minors (n = 572) are more or less serious than those experienced by young adults (n = 813).

Methods: We ran advertising campaigns on Facebook to recruit victims of sextortion, ages 18-25, for an online survey.

Lessons Learned: Conducting Research With Victims Portrayed in Sexual Abuse Images and Their Parents.

Victims portrayed in sexual abuse images may be resistant to participate in research because of embarrassment or shame due to the sensitive nature and potential permanency of images. No studies we are aware of explore reactions to participating in research after this type of crime. Telephone interviews were conducted with convenience samples of parents ( n = 46) and adolescents who were victims of child sexual abuse ( n = 11; some of whom were portrayed in sexual abuse images), and online surveys were completed by adult survivors depicted in abuse images ( N = 133).

Understanding the decline in unwanted online sexual solicitations for U.S. youth 2000-2010: findings from three Youth Internet Safety Surveys.

To explore the decline in online sexual solicitations between 2000 and 2010 by examining the characteristics of solicitations to better inform prevention efforts. Data are from the Youth Internet Safety Surveys (YISS); three cross-sectional, nationally representative telephone surveys of 3561 youth Internet users in the United States, ages 10 through 17 (1501 in YISS-1; 1500 in YISS-2; 1560 in YISS-3). Unwanted online sexual solicitation was defined as requests to engage in sexual activities or sexual talk or give personal sexual information that were unwanted or, whether wanted or not, made by an adult.

Are crimes by online predators different from crimes by sex offenders who know youth in-person?

Purpose: We examined cases in which sex offenders arrested for Internet-related crimes used the Internet for sexual communications with minors, comparing crimes by offenders who met victims online to those by offenders who knew victims in-person prior to the offense.

Methods: We collected data from a national sample of law enforcement agencies (n = 2,653) about arrests in 2009 for Internet-related sex crimes against minors, conducting detailed telephone interviews with investigators about individual cases. This paper examines a subset of arrest cases that included the use of online sexual communications (online-meeting offenders, n = 143; know-in-person/online offenders, n = 139).

Prevalence and characteristics of youth sexting: a national study.

Objectives: To obtain national estimates of youth involved in sexting in the past year (the transmission via cell phone, the Internet, and other electronic media of sexual images), as well as provide details of the youth involved and the nature of the sexual images.

Methods: The study was based on a cross-sectional national telephone survey of 1560 youth Internet users, ages 10 through 17.

Results: Estimates varied considerably depending on the nature of the images or videos and the role of the youth involved.

Youth Internet victimization in a broader victimization context.

Purpose: To examine past-year and lifetime rates of online victimization and associations with offline victimizations, trauma symptomatology, and delinquency among adolescents.

Methods: Data were collected through telephone interviews from a nationally representative sample of 2,051 adolescents (ages, 10-17) as part of the National Survey of Children's Exposure to Violence. Data were collected between January and May, 2008.

Internet-facilitated commercial sexual exploitation of children: findings from a nationally representative sample of law enforcement agencies in the United States.

This article explores the variety of ways in which the Internet is used to facilitate the commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) and provides national incidence estimates for the number of arrests involving such technology-facilitated crimes in 2006. The National Juvenile Online Victimization Study is a nationally representative longitudinal study of more than 2,500 local, county, state, and federal law enforcement agencies across the United States. The current article utilizes Wave 2 data, which surveyed arrests in 2006 for Internet-related sex crimes against minors.

Use of social networking sites in online sex crimes against minors: an examination of national incidence and means of utilization.

Purpose: To describe the variety of ways social networking sites (SNSs) are used to facilitate the sexual exploitation of youth, as well as identify victim, offender, and case differences between arrests, with and without a SNS nexus.

Methods: Mail surveys were sent to a nationally representative sample of over 2,500 local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies in the United States. Follow-up detailed telephone interviews were conducted for 1,051 individual cases ending in an arrest for Internet-related sex crimes against minors in 2006.

Conceptualizing juvenile prostitution as child maltreatment: findings from the National Juvenile Prostitution Study.

Two studies were conducted to identify the incidence (Study 1) and characteristics (Study 2) of juvenile prostitution cases known to law enforcement agencies in the United States. Study 1 revealed a national estimate of 1,450 arrests or detentions (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1,287-1,614) in cases involving juvenile prostitution during a 1-year period. In Study 2, exploratory data were collected from a subsample of 138 cases from police records in 2005.

Associations between blocking, monitoring, and filtering software on the home computer and youth-reported unwanted exposure to sexual material online.

Objective: To examine the relationship between the use of preventive software on the home computer and unwanted exposure to sexual material online.

Methods: The Youth Internet Safety Survey-2 was a national, RDD telephone survey conducted in March-June 2005. Eight hundred households (one caregiver and one child between the ages of 10 and 17 years) with home Internet access answered questions pertaining to Internet prevention activities in the household and adolescent behaviors and exposures online.

Is talking online to unknown people always risky? Distinguishing online interaction styles in a national sample of youth Internet users.

We examined the risk of unwanted online sexual solicitations and characteristics associated with four online interaction styles among youth Internet users. The interaction styles took into account the people with whom youth interacted online (people known in person only, unknown people met through face-to-face friends, unknown people met in chatroom, and other places online) and high- and low-risk patterns of online behavior. The aim was to provide a basis for identifying which youth may be most at risk from interacting online with unknown people.

Are blogs putting youth at risk for online sexual solicitation or harassment?

Objective: In light of public concern about the dangers to young people from maintaining online journals or "blogs," this exploratory paper examines whether bloggers are at increased risk for online sexual solicitation or harassment.

Method: A national telephone survey of 1,500 youth Internet users, ages 10-17, conducted between March and June 2005.

Results: Sixteen percent of youth Internet users reported blogging in the past year.

Online "predators" and their victims: myths, realities, and implications for prevention and treatment.

The publicity about online "predators" who prey on naive children using trickery and violence is largely inaccurate. Internet sex crimes involving adults and juveniles more often fit a model of statutory rape--adult offenders who meet, develop relationships with, and openly seduce underage teenagers--than a model of forcible sexual assault or pedophilic child molesting. This is a serious problem, but one that requires approaches different from those in current prevention messages emphasizing parental control and the dangers of divulging personal information.

Does online harassment constitute bullying? An exploration of online harassment by known peers and online-only contacts.

Purpose: To shed light on the nature of online harassment and the extent to which it may be bullying by examining differences in the characteristics of harassed youth, online harassment incidents, and distressing online harassment based on the identity of online harassers (known peer vs. online-only contact).

Methods: A telephone survey of a nationally representative sample of 1500 youth Internet users, ages 10 to 17, conducted between March and June 2005.

Online requests for sexual pictures from youth: risk factors and incident characteristics.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to explore the prevalence and characteristics of youth who receive requests to make and send sexual pictures of themselves over the Internet.

Methods: Data were collected as part of the Second Youth Internet Safety Survey, a nationally representative telephone survey of 1,500 youth Internet users, ages 10-17 years, in the United States.

Results: Among Internet-using youth 4% reported an online request to send a sexual picture of themselves during the previous year.

Youth Internet users at risk for the most serious online sexual solicitations.

Background: This article explores changes in the prevalence of youth Internet users reporting unwanted sexual solicitations between 2000 and 2005, as well as the risk factors related to reports of the most serious solicitations, aggressive solicitations, in which solicitors attempted or made offline contact with youth.

Methods: Data were collected from two cross-sectional random-digit-dial telephone surveys of Internet-using youth (aged 10 to 17) in the United States.

Results: Although sexual solicitations declined overall since 2000, in 2005 youth were 1.

Internet prevention messages: targeting the right online behaviors.

Background: Internet safety programs urge youth to avoid sharing personal information and talking with "strangers" online.

Objective: To examine whether sharing personal information and talking with strangers online or other behaviors are associated with the greatest odds for online interpersonal victimization.

Design: The Second Youth Internet Safety Survey was a cross-sectional random digit-dial telephone survey.