Sweetie (internet avatar)

Sweetie was a computer animated child that was created by children's rights organization Terre des hommes as a sting operation. It was used to lure online sexual predators into providing personally-identifiable information, so that this information could then be reported to law enforcement agencies.

Background

In 2013, the Dutch branch of Terre des hommes, noting that efforts to combat child sex tourism in impoverished countries had resulted in pedophiles instead seeking victims online,[1] joined forces with local advertising agency Lemz that at first preferred to remain anonymous[2] to create the animated, photorealistic image of a 10-year-old Filipina girl.

How Sweetie worked

A 'puppeteer' for Sweetie would enter a chat room, claiming to be a ten-year-old Philippine girl. Sexual predators would open webcam connections with 'her', during which programmers would animate Sweetie as necessary in real time through motion capture.[3] As the dialogue between Sweetie and the predator progressed, the predator would make a $20 wire transfer and provide his Skype address. Once this information was gathered, the chat with Sweetie would be shut down, and the information was given to the local police or Interpol.[1]

After receiving a letter from the United Nations, the team of the advertising agency Lemz admitted that they were behind this initiative.[4] Strategy director of Lemz Mark Woerde gave one public interview to the Dutch TV show RTL Late Night to explain the intervention and to make clear, for security reasons, that they were no longer involved in Terre des hommes, Sweetie or police activities.[5]

Outcome

During the ten weeks of operation, Sweetie was contacted by more than 20,000 users from 71 countries.[6] Terre des hommes identified 1,000 suspected predators, and passed their names, IP addresses, and social media accounts on to Interpol.[1][7]

The first arrest resulting from Sweetie-gleaned information occurred in Brisbane, Australia, in February 2014;[2] however, Troels Ørting Jørgensen of the European Cybercrime Centre has expressed concerns that judges may consider Sweetie to have been entrapment, and thereby rule inadmissible any data ultimately sourced to Sweetie.[2] Sweetie led to the arrest of 46 people in Australia.[6] In 2014, an Australian man became the first person to be convicted as a result of the sting operation.[8]

Sweetie has been retired, and "will not be used again".[9]

See also

References
  1. ""Sweetie" Sting: Dutch activists claim to nab 1,000 sex predators using computer-generated "child"". CBS News. 2013-11-05. Retrieved 2014-06-07.
  2. Schweizer, Kristen (2014-04-26). "Avatar Sweetie exposes sex predators". The Age. Retrieved 2014-06-07.
  3. "Case Study: Sweetie". D&AD. 2014.
  4. "Lemz claims credit for Sweetie". B&T. 2014-02-20. Retrieved 2020-11-23.
  5. "RTL Late Night • Voor Mark Woerde was 'Sweetie' een missie" (in Dutch). Retrieved 2020-11-23.
  6. Toor, Amar (2014-10-22). "Computer generated girl leads to pedophile conviction in Australia". The Verge. Retrieved 2021-06-27.
  7. Crawford, Angus (2013-11-05). "BBC News - Computer-generated 'Sweetie' catches online predators". BBC News. Retrieved 2014-06-07.
  8. Crawford, Angus (2014-10-21). "Webcam sex with fake girl Sweetie leads to sentence". BBC News. Retrieved 2021-06-27.
  9. Yenko, Athena (2013-11-06). "Webcam Child Sex Tourism: Filipino Avatar "Sweetie" Entraps Paedophiles". International Business Times. Archived from the original on 2014-06-07. Retrieved 2014-06-07.
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