Researchers from the University of Montreal are studying the passage to the act of pedophiles

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Francis Pilon

Tuesday, 6 march, 2018 21:05

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Tuesday, 6 march, 2018 21:05

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With the Internet, which would facilitate the passage to the act, researchers believe that it is necessary to concentrate more efforts in the fight against paedophiles on the platforms of online games, social networks and forums.

Three specialists from the University of Montreal were interested in the time when these individuals leave the virtual world for assault of minors. They have this month published their findings in the journal “Aggression and Violent Behavior”.

“Pedophiles are addressing now young people platforms with online games or Facebook. It is especially here that we should watch the children,” explained Francis Fortin, a specialist in child pornography on the internet and a professor at the Université de Montréal who participated in this research.

“It’s been 15 years since I studied the subject. I can tell you from the outset that this is only a small fraction of pedophiles who use child pornography and who pass the act,” he added.

Four steps before the assault

The authors of the article propose four phases through which pass most of the pedophiles before satisfy their fantasies with children or adolescents, or in “real life”.

These people explore in a first-time legal pornography on the web. Then, they begin to search for and download an array of child pornography.

Rendered to the third phase, the pedophiles gather on various forums and share their collection of images. “Of course, they do not follow this linear trajectory, said Mr. Fortin. But it is at this stage usually that there is a trivialisation of child pornography, and that they motivate them to molest children.”

The professor of criminology believes that the Internet forums allow pedophiles to “feel normal” because they finally found people like themselves, contrary to what they live every day in the society that rejects their way of life.

Thanks to the support of the digital commons and photos of the assaults that they also share between them, the pedophiles leave finally the virtual world to satiate their desires with minors.

The Internet makes it easier to access

The researcher was especially noticed that the Internet has created new opportunities for those people who have sex and want to meet children easily.

Francis Fortin provides have the legal tools to stop these individuals for the time being, but that the popularity of the web is hidden (dark web) may complicate its work in the coming years.

In the 18-to 65 years in Quebec, approximately 97 000 people are likely to have a “little” to “very strong” for having a sexual relationship with a child under the age of 12 years, according to the researcher.