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Since the early days of the internet, with AOL chatrooms and online bulletin boards, there have been unhealthy, dangerous, and predatory individuals who used these electronic environments to act inappropriately towards minors. Children and adolescents have received disturbing sexual comments and solicitations from online creeps. Sometimes, these individuals would attempt to meet up with the children, even sometimes traveling across the country to meet the child in person.
To attempt to prevent these behaviors and make the internet safer, most modern online environments ban such behavior, encourage reporting of it, and terminate accounts when such behavior is detected. Law enforcement is involved as well, at all levels, from the FBI to state and local law enforcement, as well as internationally, through Interpol task forces. One strategy used by various law enforcement groups is to go online and create fake personas of children, operated by law enforcement officers. If an online predator approaches the pseudo-child, solicits them, sends inappropriate sexual images or comments, or attempts to meet the child, they meet the law enforcement officers instead.
In 2005, researchers at the Crimes Against Children Research Center (CARC) conducted research on these law enforcement practices and found that the individuals arrested in such stings were generally less deviant in adult sexual behavior, compared to other offenders against youth. They were less likely to have a past arrest record of any kind, including for criminal sexual behaviors, were more likely to be employed, and were generally judged to be less dangerous than other sexual offenders. Nevertheless, once detected and arrested, around 13 percent of these individuals were found to be engaging in active sexual abuse of a minor, and 41 percent were found to possess criminal child sexual abuse material. All individuals arrested in this research were male, and in 63 percent of the cases where the predator attempted to meet the child, they brought sex-related items such as condoms, lubricant, or sex toys to the meeting.
While there have been legal concerns about these law enforcement activities, given that there is no actual child who has been harmed, the above information strongly suggests that these stings are detecting and intercepting individuals who do pose risks to children in real life, and who are committing crimes, or are interested in committing a sexual crime if given the opportunity. The research by CARC found that very large majorities of these cases were successfully prosecuted, with most resulting in plea agreements. Defense efforts to identify the arrest as entrapment, or to suggest the individuals were “trying to help the victim,” were engaging in roleplay or fantasy behavior, or were “addicted to the Internet,” were generally unsuccessful.
A New Form of Online Stings
In recent years, however, law enforcement has been shifting from the more public areas of the internet to the various hook-up sites such as Grindr or Tinder, on various groups on Reddit, as well as to online sites such as Fetlife, known as “Facebook for kinky people.” Officers are going into nudist and naturist groups pretending to be adolescents or children interested in nudism, to gather attention from potential predators in these nudist and naturist groups.
Whereas the stings in the past involved officers pretending to be children, some stings now involve officers pretending to be adults or parents of children who may be sexually preyed upon. In increasing numbers of cases, officers are pretending to be persons involved in fetishistic behaviors, including BDSM and “ageplay,” where adults engage in role play as children. I have heard officers testify that they believe individuals interested in ageplay may also be interested in sexually abusing a real child. Unfortunately, there’s no scientific evidence to support this. Interest in ageplay is commonly misunderstood as a form of suppressed pedophilia, a view which is likely a form of ignorance and bias.
In a study of women who engage in kink behaviors, 54 percent had engaged in age-related role play, and pretending to be a child was the most common role taken. There is little evidence that interest in ageplay is related to pedophilia, but instead, reflects a desire in many people to seek nurturing, intimacy, protection, and to reconnect to the innocence of childhood. Individuals who engage in age-related roleplay most typically want to imagine themselves as a younger version of themselves, and place themselves in the role of a child, as opposed to an adult role. This appears to represent what is known as an “Erotic Target Identity Inversion” (ETII), where individuals are aroused by the idea of actually being the erotic target. Thus, individuals with ageplay fantasies aren’t usually fantasizing about being with a child, but instead fantasize about themselves being a child. Recent research suggests that ETII is particularly high in persons interested in sexual ageplay, relative to other sexual paraphilias.
Most individuals who practice forms of BDSM and kinky behaviors are sophisticated in negotiations of consent, safety, and roleplaying. However, many people begin to explore these fantasies online, before they become more sophisticated and capable of these negotiations, and learn how to set appropriate boundaries. Most roleplay scenes, including online, in BDSM and kink, are engaged in without a clear statement of “Let’s roleplay” but instead are more like a form of sexy improv. “Breaking character” from one’s role can spoil the erotic mood and excitement. As a result, it is these naive and inexperienced individuals who may be at risk of engaging in online roleplay with a law enforcement officer engaged in a sting.
Online Safety
In my work with courts on cases like this, I’ve seen individuals who very clearly seemed to believe that they were interacting with an individual who was also interested in engaging in age-related roleplay. In my work with people involved in these online sexual activities, I am educating them about this new risk of engaging in edgy online fantasy sexual behaviors. I’m now encouraging them to:
- Never meet up with a stranger without first verifying their identity and that they are an adult.
- State clearly, in their profile and in their online chats, that regardless of roleplay interests, they are ONLY interested in consensual, legal, and safe behaviors.
I have heard testimony from law enforcement officers engaged in stings that they will “break contact” and end their investigation if an individual engages in either of the above behaviors, as they view them as indications that the individual is not a potential criminal. I have seen cases where individuals were on these sites, identified as engaging in age-play, but when presented with a potential opportunity to abuse a real child sexually, they did pursue it and were arrested. So, such predators are unfortunately out there. Those individuals clearly do not state that they only wish to engage in legal, safe, consensual behavior. So, these strategies both protect potentially innocent roleplayers, and set them more clearly apart from the potential sexual offenders who do not engage in these safe tactics.
We have to balance ensuring awareness and safety risks in kinky people versus detecting individuals who may be using these sites to gain access to children. Those people shouldn’t be on these sites, ruin it for everyone, are a real danger to children, and put others at risk. By having adults interested in consensual role play take these safety measures, it actually further distinguishes them from these people who do pose a risk to children, and makes it even easier to identify and prosecute them, as well as eject them from these online sites.
