How investigators combat sexual violence against children

They pretend to be children and chat with the perpetrators online: specialists from the State Office of Criminal Investigation initiate 93 investigations within two weeks. They look into the abyss online.

Sophie is a pretty, brown-haired girl. She likes animals and Taylor Swift, as she writes in her Instagram profile. Today Sophie is ill, lying in bed and is therefore not at school this morning. At least that's what she writes to a man who asks a little later if she wants to see a nude photo of him.

Sophie replies: "I'm only 12." That's a lie - fortunately. Because "Sophie" is an adult woman who works for the State Criminal Police Office (LKA) in Düsseldorf and pretends to be a child online - in search of perpetrators.

"Cybergrooming" is the name of the phenomenon that the LKA experts are tackling online as undercover investigators. This means that adults - usually men - approach children via chat forums or social media. They try to persuade girls in particular to send nude photos or even get them to meet for real. Sometimes the perpetrators also use blackmail: once the children have sent a revealing photo, they threaten them: I'll tell your parents - unless ...

LKA specialists pose as children

In a concerted campaign, LKA specialists posed as so-called "fake children" for two weeks. The result: 93 investigations. "The figures clearly show how big and dirty the swamp is that my investigators are fishing in here," says LKA boss Ingo Wünsch.

Several LKA specialists chat simultaneously in an open-plan office.

This morning, eight colleagues are sitting in an open-plan office at the LKA. Some are police officers, some are so-called government employees - in other words, employees with a completely different background: IT specialists, communications experts. Between laptops, network cables and coffee cups, there are also numerous smartphones. The cameras of the cell phones are taped. The background: the men often suggest that the pretend children switch over to WhatsApp. The investigators join in - but don't want their smartphone camera to be hacked, for example, and for them to be exposed.

Sometimes several "pretend children" in the room chat with the same internet user at the same time. All investigators have several profiles open at the same time anyway. "That's why I always try to keep my fake child relatively constant. I'm always so and so's age, I have a couple of siblings, my parents both work, I live in Duisburg, I have a dog. So I always share the same information," says one of the LKA experts. Her real name - as with everyone here in the area - is to remain secret.

Perpetrators also on Instagram

In the past, the police mainly used chat forums, where the perpetrators would get down to business within seconds. "Do you want to see me naked?" asks a user in the second sentence under the protection of anonymity. The investigators call this "quick and dirty". For the campaign weeks, they also deliberately created profiles on Instagram. There is still little experience with the popular social network. It quickly becomes clear that the perpetrators take more time here than in the chat - but the strategies are just as perfidious.

"Sometimes they even pretend to be children", says one online investigator: "So when we ask them, how old are you? And we say, for example, 11 or 13, then they often write, yes, me too - or: Yes, I'm 15, is that bad? There are also some who write quite openly: But I'm already 48, is that bad?" The investigator has to respond defensively to such or more blatant questions ("Should I send you a picture of my penis?"): "We can't take on the role of agent provocateur, we have to be passive and see if anything happens." Anything else would not be legally compliant.

If a perpetrator actually sends a nude photo or asks the "pretend child" to perform sexual acts, everything is secured. Now the suspect has to be brought out of anonymity. A police officer sitting in the room is now responsible for providing the necessary support. For example, he searches for the real names using photos of faces and then compares them with internal databases. The officer has just come across a man who had even told the truth to the "bogus child" in his home town. He lives outside NRW and the case is sent to the public prosecutor's office there.

"No perpetrator should ever feel safe online"

In the meantime, platform operators often help out with IP addresses or names of users - even if the social network is based in the USA. Every offender found in this way makes the LKA team proud. "And it gives our work a purpose," says one of the police officers involved. Because of course it is stressful to look into these abysses all day long - "and you've seen 20 penises by the evening," says a colleague.

She emphasizes: "That's just the tip of the iceberg." And: "You could keep hundreds, if not thousands of people busy with this." The team leader, a first chief inspector, says: "The purpose of this week of action was threefold: firstly, prevention. We want to draw attention to the fact that cybergrooming occurs wherever children are digitally active. Secondly, we want to call for more media literacy and encourage schools and parents to address the issue. Thirdly, we naturally also want to send a symbolic message to perpetrators: We are also on the move in the area of digital media - on all platforms. We are taking action against cybergrooming and will catch you."

This is also important to the head of the LKA, Ingo Wünsch: "No perpetrator should ever feel safe online." The man who claims to be from Duisburg and is chatting with one of the "pretend children" via Instagram will soon realize this: he is quite a bit older, he writes to the supposed girl: "Bad?"