Cyberpedophilia as a modern form of possible threats in virtual reality for people under 15.
As of 8 June 2010, a crime commonly referred to as cyberpedophilia has functioned in the Polish normative order. The indicated act was banned (in the home penal law) in order to update Polish provisions in a compaction to crucial social problems located in the area stricte virtual with possible consequences, however, already in the most real reality. Cyberpedophilia, as well as a number of another crimes (or, for example, phenomena that constitute a circumstantial violation of certain adopted etiquette standards, but which are hard to prove and frequently impunity-free – like cybersqating – occupying domains with the same or akin wording as the names of circumstantial enterprises) The benefits of modern civilization and technological development (various types of forgery or fraud known as phishing; unauthorised access to information; computer fraud) poses a real threat to a large part of Polish society as well.
It should be pointed out that, in accordance with Article 200a(1) of the Code, who, in order to commit a crime referred to in Article 197(3)(2) of the Law, (i.e. a qualified form of rape) or Article 200 of the Law (merciful act, pedophile) as well as the production or preservation of pornographic content, by means of an electronic strategy or telecommunications network, makes contact with a insignificant under the age of 15, aiming, by means of misleading him, to exploit an mistake or inability to decently realize the situation, or by means of an unlawful threat, to meet him, is subject to imprisonment until the age of 3.
In addition, according to Article 200a(2) of the Act, who, through an electronic strategy or telecommunications network, proposes to a insignificant under the age of 15 to engage in sexual intercourse, surrender or engage in the production or preservation of pornographic content, and who seeks to carry it out, is subject to fines, penalties for the regulation of liberty or imprisonment to a insignificant under the age of 2. It is besides worth pointing out that in the ultimate Court’s case-law, it is required that the individual liable for attributing the offence referred to in Article 200a(2) is ‘required to respond to it, regardless of whether it is intended to prosecute the sexual proposal in any way or whether it is intended to respond in any way to specified a request’ (order of the Criminal Court of 17 March 2016 in the case No. Similarly, in its ruling of 23 November 2017, the ultimate Court Criminal Chamber (in the case of act No. V KK 227/17) maintained the previously presented line of argument.
An highly drastic, but unfortunately the most authentic case of cyberpedophilia, which fundamentally destroys the life of a young man, remains, for example, a case from the United States. Namely, a fourteen-year-old girl received a computer from her parents with access to the Internet. After surfing the Web for 2 months, she met a man on 1 of the chat rooms with whom the contact rapidly turned into an email exchange between the callers. After any time, her parents realized that their daughter was talking to a stranger, fundamentally limiting her access to the computer, and began monitoring her email. Unfortunately, they did not verify the calls and texts that were made utilizing a mobile phone. After any time, the small girl ran distant from home, the police conducting the investigation discovered a number of data on the hard drive of the computer indicating that the kid had fallen victim to a network of intercontinental pedophiles. In this case, a peculiar criminal came from Greece and lured a manipulative kid into the country. It was only after 5 months that the girl returned to her parents. At first, she claimed that she loved a paedophile and deficiency of contact with it caused frequent fights with caregivers, only intense treatment made the kid remember the details of the torture that she suffered. The girl had a suicidal tendency – she tried to take her own life, yet went to a intellectual institution. The kid gradually regains consciousness, however, the negative experience which he gained from the relation with the pedophile and the accompanying fear and trauma - all of this will unfortunately be in her psyche most likely for the remainder of her life.
The above circumstances constitute an exemplification of how highly dangerous the criminal offence referred to as cyberpedophilia remains, and how crucial both criminal sanctions and its inevitability towards the perpetrator are.