LethalLebron
03-05-2014, 05:05 AM
Dutch child protection charity, Terre des Hommes, created "Sweetie" to carry out the international sting operation.
The group said it was able to obtain the names, IP computer addresses and online contact details of more than 1,000 suspected perpetrators in 65 countries in just over10 weeks. It passed the information on to Interpol.
"The perpetrators think they are invisible, but we proved that they are anything but invisible. And we passed all the information to Interpol, who will contact national police forces," Van Santbrink said. "Internet is free, but it's not lawless."
Suspected pedophiles were tricked into believing they were engaged in an online chat with a 10-year-old girl from the Philippines called Sweetie, when in fact they were conversing with a team of four researches in the outskirts of Amsterdam.
He said men find these children through social media websites and chat rooms, then use untraceable credit cards and online aliases to get them to perform sexual acts, a video release from Terre des Hommes said.
"Most Americans have also been recorded from the webcam, so we can actually see who they are and see their family pictures in the background," Van Santbrink said. "That's the scariest part. They are fathers, husbands, partners, ordinary people you meet every day."
Van Santbrink insisted that the conversations captured by the researchers showed that the suspected pedophiles at all times believed they were dealing with a 10 year old girl. All of the sexual conversations were instigated by the suspected pedophiles and not by the researchers.
"We never accepted payments nor did we hack computers of the suspects. All the info was offered by the suspects themselves. Our researcher would say to a suspect that something is wrong with the chat, can we go to Facebook or Skype and in most cases the suspect agreed."
The group said it was able to obtain the names, IP computer addresses and online contact details of more than 1,000 suspected perpetrators in 65 countries in just over10 weeks. It passed the information on to Interpol.
"The perpetrators think they are invisible, but we proved that they are anything but invisible. And we passed all the information to Interpol, who will contact national police forces," Van Santbrink said. "Internet is free, but it's not lawless."
Suspected pedophiles were tricked into believing they were engaged in an online chat with a 10-year-old girl from the Philippines called Sweetie, when in fact they were conversing with a team of four researches in the outskirts of Amsterdam.
He said men find these children through social media websites and chat rooms, then use untraceable credit cards and online aliases to get them to perform sexual acts, a video release from Terre des Hommes said.
"Most Americans have also been recorded from the webcam, so we can actually see who they are and see their family pictures in the background," Van Santbrink said. "That's the scariest part. They are fathers, husbands, partners, ordinary people you meet every day."
Van Santbrink insisted that the conversations captured by the researchers showed that the suspected pedophiles at all times believed they were dealing with a 10 year old girl. All of the sexual conversations were instigated by the suspected pedophiles and not by the researchers.
"We never accepted payments nor did we hack computers of the suspects. All the info was offered by the suspects themselves. Our researcher would say to a suspect that something is wrong with the chat, can we go to Facebook or Skype and in most cases the suspect agreed."