ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the emergence of the internet (and new media more broadly) as a site of sexual offending. Such offending defies an easy classification, as it takes a multitude of forms, ranging from ‘grooming’ of children for contact abuse, virtual abuse and harassment, and sexual stalking to the production and circulation of child pornography and ‘extreme and violent pornography’. It will be argued that one of the major problems currently facing policy responses to internet sex offences is a tendency to deal with these problems in their generality rather than their specificity. The particular dynamics underpinning different internet-related offences tend to be overlooked or conflated, resulting in confusion rather than clarity as to the best policy strategies for preventing or ameliorating harms. There are a further set of problems that arise from the unique features of the internet as a globally dispersed environment, one whose scope and diversity escapes straightforward attempts at ‘top down’ monitoring or regulation. In such circumstances, a new apparatus of ‘polycentric’ intervention needs to emerge so as to respond adequately to the challenges presented by internet-based sex offences. Yet moves in this direction are themselves subject to problems of coordination, oversight and accountability – problems that do not avail themselves of any simple solution.
