How ‘Sweetie’ Tracked Down 1.000 Pedophiles

What if you take a couple of laptops, some researchers and an image of a ten year old girl. How many pedophiles are you able to track down?

At least 1.000, according to Terres de Hommes, the children’s aid organisation which is passionately dedicated to stop child exploitation in developing countries.

For the research Terres des Hommes used a ten year old girl from the Philippines, named ‘Sweetie’.

That may sound remarkable to you, using a child to track down perverts.

But this is even more remarkable: Sweetie isn’t in the Philippines. She’s not 10 years old. She’s not a girl either.

Terres des Hommes Sweetie: Tracked 1.000 Pedophiles

In fact, “Sweetie” doesn’t exist. She’s a computer-generated avatar, created by software.

 Sweetie was only real in that she existed in an internet chat room for ten weeks.

Launched from Amsterdam, she attracted more than 20,000 sexual predators from 71 countries who asked for sex performances.

Watch here how the 10 year old virtual Sweetie tracks 1.000 pedophiles in 2 months time:

My Opinion?

I totally agree with the people of Terres des Hommes.

If their researchers and Sweetie can track more than 1.000 webcam child sex tourists in only 2 months’ time, the international police should be able to trace at least 100.000 a year.

It’s remarkable to hear that law enforcements have expressed concern as they believe that criminal investigations using intrusive surveillance measures should be the exclusive responsibility of law enforcement agencies.

So why didn’t they come with this way of tracking down sexual predators?

Instead of concerning, start developing more disruptive programs like Terres des Hommes did and lock up these sick people forever.

So my opinion from a human point of view: great work!

From a marketing point of view: a great concept for earning the attention it needs.

To convince the international community to take action Terres des Hommes needs 1.000.000 signatures.

Please sign the petition if you want them to help protecting vulnerable children who are forced behind the webcams.

What About You?
What do you think of the initiative? Please let us know in the comments below.

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About the Author
Laurens Bianchi is an independent online (sport) marketing professional from the Netherlands and has been blogging on ViralBlog since 2008. Currently Laurens is also the Social Media Consultant for the Royal Dutch Football Association. Follow him on Twitter or contact him on LinkedIn.