Marko Forss: "Sexual abuse via the Internet is a global problem to which local responses are needed"

Having had a visible presence for the past three and a half years on the main Finnish social networks, the Helsinki police can easily be contacted by young victims of sexual abuse or intimidation, and then carry out investigations to track down the perpetrators of such acts.  The police officer in charge of this service, Marko Forss, came to give a description of it to the Congress seminar on combating child sexual exploitation at local and regional levels, held in the context of the Council of Europe's ONE in FIVE Campaign.

09.02.2012

Rather than working discreetly in an office, you are displaying your "profile" on all your country's social networks, first and foremost Facebook, and you can be personally contacted on chat rooms and via Messenger.  Is this an effective strategy for coping with sexual abuse via the Internet?

Marko Forss: Thanks to this presence, I can be contacted at any time, on line, by young people wishing to report messages or sexual proposals that they have received, and also by victims of abuse in "real life".  It is sometimes easier to talk about these on line than at a police station.  What is more, our presence and visibility on social networks reminds everyone using it that the Internet is not completely unsupervised.  Lastly, we can make numerous contacts with young people on the Internet and talk to them freely, whereas they would certainly be intimidated if this was done in our offices.

But we do not spend our working day at a screen, and of course we get out and about, meeting youngsters and looking for people who have committed offences.  While cybercrime is a global problem, it needs to be dealt with on the spot, at local level.  To this end we are working closely with social and education services nationwide.

This seminar is mainly for local and regional elected representatives who want to do more to combat sexual exploitation: how can you help them in this respect?

Marko Forss: I am amazed that national and local political leaders are insufficiently aware of the scale of the sexual offences of which children are victims on the Internet: they must be made much more aware of what goes on and of other kinds of virtual aggression, such as threats and cyberbullying.  It is also important to point out to both elected representatives and adults in general how destructive sexual advances and cyberthreats can be to children, ultimately altering their whole character.  They do not know how to react or how to say no, and they may slide into depression after being subjected to such an ordeal.

Looking beyond the raising of politicians' awareness, what practical advice would you like to give to families and young people?

Marko Forss: The first thing, of course, is not to hesitate to come and see us on line.  And as part of daily life, I feel that parents should talk about the Internet to their children more often, and this should become as natural as asking them how they got on at school today.  Parents should not read their children's mail, for reasons of trust, but should monitor their lists of Internet friends and know, not what they are saying, but who they are talking to.  In fact it is by studying the lists of persons registered or on line that we spot suspicious profiles!