Minors in chat rooms: dangerous dialogues recorded by the study

The human rights organization “Child’s Smile” conducted a study on the dangers of attracting minors through anonymous chat platforms and social media applications.

The study was done in order to identify the dangers that await minors who communicate with strangers on the Internet. YouSmilers student volunteers and members of the children’s advocacy organization conducted an online survey.

The students (with the consent of their parents and guardians), under the strict parallel supervision of subject matter experts, administered three hypothetical profiles of supposedly “disadvantaged underage girls” created by Child’s Smile on anonymous chat platforms during the study. The sociologists then filmed the “experience of communication” in the chat rooms and presented their findings.

Specifically for research:

• Three “hypothetical/fake profiles” were created and spoke on behalf of students with an average age of 15 years.
• A total of 88 conversations were conducted (despite the fact that adults knew that they were communicating with minors), a total of 51 users (58%), the average age was 37 years.
• 14 users (16%) with an average age of 41 sexualized the conversation (reduced to intimacy and sex), flirted or pressured students into sending them photographic materials.
• Of the 14 conversations: 5 (35%) involved grooming (“seduction”), 2 (14%) were pressured to obtain photographs of the minor, 2 (14%) were sent indecent material to the minor, and the remainder 5 (35%) experienced sexualization.

In conclusion, experts noted that in 1 out of 6 interviews conducted with adults, whose average age is 41, everything came down to sex (intimacy), or the communication took the form of a conversation that violated the rights of children.

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