The Suojellan lapsia association, which carried out the survey, demands that technology companies take responsibility for the fact that illegal footage is so easy to obtain online.
The Finnish Association has found out with a survey what methods sex offenders use to approach children online.
The study was carried out by the Protecting children association. Depending on the question, between 75 and 1,528 active online offenders have responded to the survey in less than a year.
Protecting children is an organization founded in 2019, whose goal is to prevent sexual crimes against children and to produce expert information on the subject.
About criminals 70 percent said in the survey that they seek contact with children by utilizing social media, online game platforms and communication applications.
Among the social media platforms mentioned by the authors, the most popular were Instagram (45 percent of respondents), Facebook (30), Discord (26) and Tiktok (25). Telegram (45 percent of respondents), Whatsapp (41) and Signal (28) were the most used communication applications.
Criminals said they especially prefer encrypted apps, the use of which does not pose a risk of being caught.
According to the association, the results of the survey showed that illegal images can be found on social media platforms as well as on adult entertainment websites. 29 percent of respondents used social media, 32 percent adult entertainment websites.
77 percent of those who participated in the study said that they use images that prove sexual violence against children on the open web.
A clear connection was found between viewing illegal images and contact with children. 40 percent of the respondents said that they contact children after watching illegal footage.
Let's protect Executive director of Lapsia ry Nina Vaaranen-Valkonen says in the announcement that the easy availability of illegal footage in popular social media applications is alarming and requires quick action.
The association requires technology companies to take responsibility for the matter. It also drew up recommendations for companies based on the research results, the purpose of which is to strengthen the prevention of sexual crimes against children.
The Protecting Children association demands that children's rights be taken into account in the development of technology platforms, that security instructions for online platforms are better available, that companies enhance the faster detection and removal of visual material, that warning messages targeted at perpetrators and treatment guidance are enhanced, and that the age limits of users of online platforms are more effectively monitored.
The research results were published on Tuesday in the European Parliament.
Now the conducted survey is based on the survey carried out by Suojellan lapsia association in the dark web.
People looking for and using footage proving sexual violence against children were asked about their thoughts, feelings and behaviour.
The surveys launched in December 2020 have received a total of more than 30,000 responses in 21 different languages. There are also Finnish speakers. Of all the respondents' languages, Spanish and Russian cover about 80 percent.
The survey has been implemented in such a way that whenever a person searches for illegal footage with certain search terms, the search engine does not offer it for viewing, but directs the person to the survey and a self-care program.
According to Nina Vaaranen-Valkonen, they wanted to approach the perpetrators of sexual crimes in a slightly different way than usual: not by wagging the finger, but by helping to change their behavior.
The study published now was created by adding nine new questions to the previous battery of questions. Answers to these were collected between April 2023 and January 2024.
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