Sexual predators online

1. caspercock (1:26:46 PM): hello, enjoying yourself?

2. angelgirl12yo (1:26:53 PM): its ok

3. angelgirl12yo (1:26:57 PM): kinda quiet

4. caspercock (1:27:15 PM): what you doing?

5. angelgirl12yo (1:27:26 PM): just chattin

6. caspercock (1:27:49 PM): cool,

7. caspercock (1:28:05 PM): I like your name, got a pic?

8. angelgirl12yo (1:28:13 PM): no sorry

9. caspercock (1:28:23 PM): that's ok.

10. caspercock (1:28:28 PM): u really 12?

11. angelgirl12yo (1:28:35 PM): ya

12. caspercock (1:28:50 PM): that's cool

13. caspercock (1:29:08 PM): I've never chatted with someone 12 on here.

14. angelgirl12yo (1:29:16 PM): ok, nice meetin u tho

15. caspercock (1:29:24 PM): nice meeting you too.

16. caspercock (1:29:30 PM): I'm 21

This transcript records an actual online conversation which, after this point, became increasingly sexual with ‘caspercock’ trying to persuade ‘angelgirl12yo’ to send photographs of herself masturbating. ‘Angelgir12yo’ was in fact a male Special Agent from the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation, while ‘caspercock’ was Timothy Wales, already on probation for an earlier sexual assault. Wales was convicted of one count of attempting to entice a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity (18 USC § 2422(b)) and one count of attempted child sexual exploitation (18 USC § 2251(a)(d)) and sentenced to just over fifteen and a half years in prison.

In its relatively short life, the Internet has introduced us to many new terms and phenomena. One which has received considerable attention is that of online ‘grooming’. Although widely used, the term ‘grooming’ is neither well-defined nor understood.