Sweetie is a virtual character (avatar) created by Terre des Hommes Netherlands to carry out an investigation into a recently emerging phenomenon whereby live s*x acts involving children are carried out on demand for viewers using computer web cameras. The children are located in private residences in villages in the Philippines (mostly) and the viewers , of whom an overwhelming majority are male,
are from developed countries all over the world. The Sweetie “lure” was set up by four researchers over two months by using the avatar to pose as a 10 year old girl in public chatrooms on the web and it very simply and quickly attracted thousands of predators of whom one thousand were identified. The problem
Terre des Hommes Netherlands works to end child exploitation and to assist victims around the world. In recent years, we have been overwhelmed by the rapid increase in the number of child victims of “We**am Child S*x Tourism” (WCST) that we encounter during our work in various countries. Terre des Hommes carried out research into the nature, extent and consequences of the online s*xual exploitation of children. The worldwide web facilitates easy connection between predators and young children, many of whom are coerced into performing on we**am by family members who regard the practice as an “easy” means of earning money. Right now, we**am child s*x tourists are able to violate young children online without consequence. On a daily basis, tens of thousands of (mostly Western) men pay for we**am s*x shows in which small children are coerced to perform s*xual acts. It is reliably estimated by the US FBI that 750,000 predatory men are online are any given moment, moving around up to 40,000 chatrooms in search of victims. Most of the child victims come from extremely poor backgrounds in the Philippines and it is sheer poverty that forces them into performing s*xual acts on we**am. However, very few child abusers have ever been convicted of this crime. Before the release of this campaign (November 2013), only six perpetrators in the world had received sentences in court. We**am Child S*x Tourism is prohibited by dozens of international laws and by the national laws of almost every country, but these laws are rarely enforced because child victims do not tend to report these crimes to the police. Given that the global demand for We**am Child S*x Tourism is so large and Internet connection is getting cheaper and more accessible in developing nations, immediate action must be taken before it is too late. The solution
Based on the fact that our four researchers can trace 1,000 predators in just two months, we maintain that police forces around the world should be able to trace more than 100,000 a year. Pro-active policing is the only way to catch the perpetrators of these terrible crimes. Please share this film widely to make people as well as authorities aware of this crime, and help us protect the vulnerable children who are abused behind we**ams. We**am Child S*x Tourism must stop. To convince the international community to take action, we created a petition in association with Avaaz , which will be presented shortly to the relevant authorities. Our goal is to reach 1 million signatures. Please sign the petition, share with friends, family and colleagues. Sign the petition now; http://www.avaaz.org/en/wcst/
More information (in English) go: http://www.youtube.com/user/sweetie
For more information (in Dutch) go to our website http://www.terredeshommes.nl/sweetie
