Victim and criminal - at 13

By FRANCIS TILL

The question from the floor of the crowded hall could not have been more disturbing: "What do we do with a 13-year-old girl who has her own website and is offering to take sexual pictures of herself for pay?"

It was the closing session of the annual NetSafe conference in Auckland last week, and on the podium were police professionals from Australia, Canada and New Zealand, discussing ways to make the internet safer for children.

Superintendent Howard Broad, Auckland's district police commander, took a valiant stab at an answer, saying the problem would be handled in a family setting, in which the girl and those responsible for her would work out a solution.

But regardless of her actions, he said, the girl would be a child under New Zealand law - and therefore considered a victim.

Later, he told the Herald that if an adult were using the girl as a model for pornographic images, he or she would be arrested as a child pornographer.

But at 13, the girl could not be charged if she was her own pornographer - something that was no longer an unthinkable scenario.

Broad is concerned for youth, especially those under 14, who in the eyes of the law cannot form the "criminal intent" that must be present for most crimes to be prosecuted.

It wasn't just the idea of a child becoming her own pornographer, he said, but of children engaging in a wide variety of activities that would be considered criminal if undertaken by an adult.

These included hacking, identity theft, harassing and stalking other children online and through cell phone text messaging and even economic crimes such as online credit card fraud.

The police are now working under a "whole of community" system in which they do not wait for complaints from victims, but try to develop partnerships that let them address the roots of crime.

This puts the 7000 or so officers in a peculiar position when it comes to internet crime.

It is easy to understand that children are often victims, but what should they do when they are also engaged in criminal activity?

Broad is particularly distressed by the growing numbers of cybercafes full of obviously truant children playing age-restricted games.

Those games are the principal lure of cybercafes, which depend on hourly fees to cover the cost of broadband connections.

The truant children in those cafes tend to fall, like the 13-year-old girl who makes herself into a victim of child pornography, outside the reach of the system.

"The proprietor of a cyber cafe already has an obligation to provide a safe environment," suggests Broad, "so it might be that OSH should handle the problem of underage children playing age-restricted computer games."

But, changing times meant the view that children could not form criminal intent might no longer be practical, at least on the information highway.

"It's always been an issue that people might have the wherewithal to commit a crime, but still cannot form the criminal intent required."

He cites the case of a big boy who strikes another boy, causing harm, but cannot be charged as an adult, even though he might look like one and even punch like one.

Laws on the age of criminal responsibility had been in place for some time, "and I suppose there is an issue on whether they need to be adjusted.

"Because it is the case that kids are getting older younger."

Still, he points out, the knowledge that enables children to commit cybercrime is only technical knowledge.

"You have to ask, are they able to comprehend the impact?"

Netsafe