Unwanted sexual solicitation

There has been a lot of media attention about unwanted sexual solicitation. There seems to be a lot of misunderstanding about it. To change that, we want to talk a little bit about it.

What is unwanted sexual solicitation?
The Crimes against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire has been on the forefront of this research. They define unwanted sexual solicitation one of three things ¹:

Being asked to talk about sex when the young person doesn’t want to
Being asked to do something sexual when the young person doesn’t want to
Being asked to provide personal sexual information (like your bra size or sexual past) when the young person doesn’t want to.

How often does it happen?

13% of youth 10-17 years of age reported being targeted for unwanted sexual solicitation in a national telephone survey conducted in 2005 ¹.
14% of 10-15 year olds reported being targeted in a national online survey conducted in 2006 ⁵.

The most commonly reported place online where solicitations occur is instant messaging and chat rooms ¹⁶. Solicitations also occur on social networking sites, but less frequently than IM and chat rooms ⁶.

Who is targeted? ^8,9

Many people believe children are more likely targeted than teenagers. But, among 10-17 year olds, 58% of solicitations occurred to youth 15-17 years old, as compared to 11% of solicitations that were reported by children 10-12 years old.
Most aggressive solicitations, including those when the youth is encouraged to meet the person in-person, are not targeted to children. Actually 2/3 of all aggressive solicitations are reported by youth 15 years of age and older, as compared to 7% of solicitations, which are reported by 11 and 12 year olds combined. No youth 10 years of age in the Youth Internet Safety Survey -2 reported an aggressive solicitation.
Girls are more likely than boys to be targeted for unwanted sexual solicitation. 66% of girls versus 34% of boys report an unwanted sexual solicitation online in the last year.

Who is the solicitor? ^8,9

Although some people may believe that most solicitors are adults, the truth is, we don’t know. In the Youth Internet Safety Survey 2, youth who were solicited were asked about the person that targeted them. 48% of youth said the person was under the age of 18 years whereas 24% said the person soliciting them was 18 years of age and older. 27% of targeted youth said they weren’t sure of the person’s age.
Males are more frequently the solicitor as compared to females. 67% of youth targeted by unwanted solicitations said the person was male.

What can you do if it happens?

The majority of kids who are sexually solicited online are not upset by the experience. Nonetheless, 20% report being really upset, and 13% report being really afraid 1. If you have been targeted and are upset by the experience, talk to someone. Even if you’re not upset by the experience, you should report it.
Report suspicious sexual activities online to the Cyber Tip Line, which is part of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, at: www.cybertipline.com.

What are the characteristics of sex crimes that begin online and move offline? ^10,11

Not all unwanted sexual solicitations that occur online move offline. In rare cases, however, they do. The Crimes against Children Research Center conducted a national survey of law enforcement agencies in 2000 to document the Internet-related sex crimes that had been reported to the police in the previous year. They are in the process of conducting another survey that will provide more recent statistics. Findings from the 2000 survey suggest:

Online molesters are generally not pedophiles. They do not target children, but rather teenagers.
In most cases (95%), the adult perpetrator does not lie about being an adult
In most cases (73%), if a youth meets their perpetrator face to face, they will do so more than once
In very few cases (5%) are threats or violence part of the crime

These characteristics are very different from the stereotypical case depicted in media; instead it sounds like characteristics of statutory rape. Statutory rape is a serious crime; it is different however from the type of crime than we discuss when we talk about Internet safety with teens. If we are going to make a difference, we need to be honest about what is going on. Most young people involved appear to know that they are talking with an adult and know that the adult is interested in having sex with them.

If you know someone that is in a situation like this, talk to them about it. Talk to them about why it is not the most healthy choice for them to make.

What are the laws? ¹²
You should know that, even if you want to engage in sexual conversation or behavior online, it may not be legal.

Possession, Manufacture, and Distribution of Child Pornography is illegal. Child pornography has been defined under federal statute as a visual depiction of a minor (child younger than 18) engaged in sexually explicit conduct (18 U.S.C. 2256). This means if you send or post a sexually explicit picture of yourself, you are breaking the law.

The use of the Internet to entice, invite, or persuade a child to meet for sexual acts, or to help arrange such a meeting, is against the law (18 U.S.C. 2425). If you are under the age of legal consent (the age is different for different states) and you meet an adult offline for sexual acts, the adult is breaking the law – even if you meet this person because you want to.

What about pornography?
Some people believe that unwanted exposure to sexual material leads to pornography seeking behavior in kids. We don’t know, but the data don’t tend to support this idea. Around one in five youth online are exposed to unwanted sexual material while surfing the Internet, of which only 2% (less than 1% of all youth online) report purposefully going back to the website later ¹³. In a separate study, just as many young people reported looking at x-rated pictures in magazines (13%) and movies (10%) as on the Internet (10%) ¹⁴.

Also, 17% of kids who reported an unwanted exposure said they knew it was an x-rated site before they entered, suggesting that in some instances, the exposure can be avoided by not clicking on the link ¹³. Talk to your kids about how you feel about them looking at pornography.