A children’s rights group located more than 1,000 pedophiles in the United States and dozens of other countries using a computer-generated girl as bait on the Internet. Sweetie, a 10-year-old Filipina girl, was created by Terre des Hommes Netherlands.

The group established Sweetie’s identity in online chat rooms, saying she was available for webcam-based sex. More than 20,000 pedophiles from 71 countries responded within a 10-week period.

As detailed in its new report (pdf), the Dutch rights group managed to identify about a thousand of the predators, and turned over the information to law enforcement.

The predators “come from all over the world, from America, Europe, but also from countries like India, Japan, Korea,” Hans Guyt, the group’s head of campaigns, told Agence France-Presse.

Those requesting online sex acts from Sweetie included “fathers, musicians, and an architect,” journalists in the The Hague were told. One was a 35-year-old father of two from Atlanta, Georgia, who offered $10 for the child to undress.

“To put yourself in the shoes of a 10-year-old Filipina girl and seeing what some men want from you has been a shocking experience for them,” Guyt said. “Some demands and acts were really obscene.”

The group said they obviously did not have their computerized child perform any sex acts, and abruptly stopped each chat after a request was made. “We are not prosecutors, we are not judges,” added Guyt. “It will be for [law enforcement] to decide what to do with the elements we gave them.”

Creating Sweetie was part of the group’s campaign of drawing attention to a growing form of child exploitation known as webcam child sex tourism. Many of its victims are located in the Philippines. The rights group’s base of operations, where it manages the chat rooms, is in a remote building in Amsterdam.

“The biggest problem is that the police don’t take action until child victims file reports, but children almost never report these crimes,” Guyt told the news service.

Remarkably, only six people in the world have so far been convicted of engaging in webcam child sex tourism, the rights group said.

- Danny Biederman, Noel Brinkerhoff

To Learn More:

Computer-Generated Preteen Girl with Webcam Helps Identify 1,000 Pedophiles (by Agence France-Presse)

Tens of Thousands of Child Victims in International Online Sex Crimes Case Disclosed (Terre des Hommes, Stops Child Exploitation) (pdf)

Becoming Sweetie: A Novel Approach to Stopping the Global Rise of Webcam Child Sex Tourism (Terre des Hommes, Stops Child Exploitation) (pdf)

FBI Operated Child Porn Service for Two Weeks during Investigation (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)