Sweetie (internet avatar)

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Sweetie was a computer animated child that was created by children's rights organization Terre des hommes as a sting operation. It was used to lure online sexual predators into providing personally-identifiable information, so that this information could then be reported to law enforcement agencies.

Contents

Background

In 2013, the Dutch branch of Terre des hommes, noting that efforts to combat child sex tourism in impoverished countries had resulted in pedophiles instead seeking victims online, [1] joined forces with local advertising agency Lemz that at first preferred to remain anonymous [2] to create the animated, photorealistic image of a 10-year-old Filipina girl.

How Sweetie worked

A 'puppeteer' for Sweetie would enter a chat room, claiming to be a ten-year-old Philippine girl. Sexual predators would open webcam connections with 'her', during which programmers would animate Sweetie as necessary in real time through motion capture. [3] As the dialogue between Sweetie and the predator progressed, the predator would make a $20 wire transfer and provide his Skype address. Once this information was gathered, the chat with Sweetie would be shut down, and the information was given to the local police or Interpol. [1]

After receiving a letter from the United Nations, the team of the advertising agency Lemz admitted that they were behind this initiative. [4] Strategy director of Lemz Mark Woerde gave one public interview to the Dutch TV show RTL Late Night to explain the intervention and to make clear, for security reasons, that they were no longer involved in Terre des hommes, Sweetie or police activities. [5]

Outcome

During the ten weeks of operation, Sweetie was contacted by more than 20,000 users from 71 countries. [6] Terre des hommes identified 1,000 suspected predators, and passed their names, IP addresses, and social media accounts on to Interpol. [1] [7]

The first arrest resulting from Sweetie-gleaned information occurred in Brisbane, Australia, in February 2014; [2] however, Troels Ørting Jørgensen of the European Cybercrime Centre has expressed concerns that judges may consider Sweetie to have been entrapment, and thereby rule inadmissible any data ultimately sourced to Sweetie. [2] Sweetie led to the arrest of 46 people in Australia. [6] In 2014, an Australian man became the first person to be convicted as a result of the sting operation. [8]

Sweetie has been retired, and "will not be used again". [9]

See also

Related Research Articles

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In law enforcement, a sting operation is a deceptive operation designed to catch a person attempting to commit a crime. A typical sting will have an undercover law enforcement officer, detective, or co-operative member of the public play a role as criminal partner or potential victim and go along with a suspect's actions to gather evidence of the suspect's wrongdoing. Mass media journalists occasionally resort to sting operations to record video and broadcast to expose criminal activity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Webcam</span> Video camera connected to a computer or network

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Child sex tourism (CST) is tourism for the purpose of engaging in the prostitution of children, which is commercially facilitated child sexual abuse. The definition of child in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is "every human being below the age of 18 years". Child sex tourism results in both mental and physical consequences for the exploited children, which may include sexually transmitted infections, "drug addiction, pregnancy, malnutrition, social ostracism, and death", according to the State Department of the United States. Child sex tourism, part of the multibillion-dollar global sex tourism industry, is a form of child prostitution within the wider issue of commercial sexual exploitation of children. Child sex tourism victimizes approximately 2 million children around the world. The children who perform as prostitutes in the child sex tourism trade often have been lured or abducted into sexual slavery.

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Terre des hommes, also capitalized as Terre des Hommes, is an international children's rights charitable humanitarian umbrella organization under the aegis of the International Federation of Terre des Hommes (TDHIF), with independent organizations in Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Spain, and Syria. It was founded in 1960 by Edmond Kaiser in Lausanne, Switzerland. The organization is named after Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's 1939 philosophical memoir Terre des hommes. An important part of the TDHIF's work is as a consultant to the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). Promoting the Convention on the Rights of a Child is an important activity of Tdh. Advocating for children's rights, defending them, and spreading information are tasks which Terre des Hommes – to the aid of children considers a priority. TDHIF runs the two campaigns "Destination Unknown" – Children on the Move (www.destination-unknown.org) and "Children Win" – Changing the Game of Mega Sporting Events (www.childrenwin.org). Foundation of the organization was awarded Balzan Prize in 2018.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 ""Sweetie" Sting: Dutch activists claim to nab 1,000 sex predators using computer-generated "child"". CBS News. 2013-11-05. Archived from the original on 2021-05-21. Retrieved 2014-06-07.
  2. 1 2 3 Schweizer, Kristen (2014-04-26). "Avatar Sweetie exposes sex predators". The Age. Archived from the original on 2021-05-21. Retrieved 2014-06-07.
  3. ↑ "Case Study: Sweetie" . D&AD . 2014. Archived from the original on 2022-12-30. Retrieved 2024-05-31.
  4. ↑ "Lemz claims credit for Sweetie". B&T. 2014-02-20. Archived from the original on 2020-08-15. Retrieved 2020-11-23.
  5. ↑ "RTL Late Night • Voor Mark Woerde was 'Sweetie' een missie" (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 2020-10-31. Retrieved 2020-11-23.
  6. 1 2 Toor, Amar (2014-10-22). "Computer generated girl leads to pedophile conviction in Australia". The Verge . Archived from the original on 2021-06-27. Retrieved 2021-06-27.
  7. ↑ Crawford, Angus (2013-11-05). "BBC News - Computer-generated 'Sweetie' catches online predators". BBC News. Archived from the original on 2021-07-01. Retrieved 2014-06-07.
  8. ↑ Crawford, Angus (2014-10-21). "Webcam sex with fake girl Sweetie leads to sentence". BBC News. Retrieved 2021-06-27.
  9. ↑ Yenko, Athena (2013-11-06). "Webcam Child Sex Tourism: Filipino Avatar "Sweetie" Entraps Paedophiles". International Business Times . Archived from the original on 2014-06-07. Retrieved 2014-06-07.
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