Teenagers are especially at risk from chatrooms, drawn by the chance to meet young people in anonymity. And child abusers have been quick to spot an opportunity, writes Ed Power
She sounded too good to be true. A smart, sassy, single career girl - what unattached guy wouldn't have watered at the mouth? Their only contact had been via an internet chat room - one of the innumerable online talking shops to which millions of surfers flock each day - but Mark Gillick was probably already half-smitten. When he agreed to a face-to-face liaison with the 26-year-old university lecturer he had befriended over the Web, he must have thought his ship had finally come in.
Unfortunately for Gillick, she was too good to be true. His virtual soulmate didn't teach at university. In fact she hadn't ever been to university. She was a 14-year-old schoolgirl.
Even in person, her disguise was immaculate. The two hooked up in Galway, struck up an instant rapport and had sex in a city- centre hotel. Only after gardaí burst into the room and arrested him, did Gillick realise he had been duped.
As the remorseful 29-year-old received a suspended sentence last week from a judge who acknowledged Gillick had been deceived, attention again focused on the threat Internet chatrooms pose to the unwary.
Teenagers are especially at risk. They frequent chatrooms in vast numbers, drawn by the chance to meet other youngsters in complete anonymity and discuss, in real time, topics as diverse as Star Trek, make-up and nu-metal. And child abusers have been quick to spot an opportunity.
Two years ago an English court jailed 33-year-old exports clerk Patrick Green for the rape of a 13-year-old girl he had "groomed" on a chatroom. Masquerading as a 15-year-old boy, Green had gained his victim's confidence, persuaded her to reveal her real name (aliases are standard in chatrooms) and suggested they meet in person. He picked her up at a railway station, drove her to his home and assaulted her.
The case prompted a public outcry and led several British-based Internet service providers (ISPs) - the companies which connect users to the Internet - to instal costly chatroom "inspectors", trained child care staff hired to surf sites incognito on the lookout for suspicious activity. Home Secretary Jack Straw even touted the possibility of creating a new offence of "grooming" to crack down on paedophiles stalking children on the Web.
But attempts to curb deviants, who often infiltrate private chatrooms operated independently of the big league ISPs such as Yahoo and AOL, continue to prove fruitless. Cyber-stalking has become so commonplace in Britain that a Welsh school earlier this year abandoned plans to provide students with private e-mail over fears it might expose them to paedophiles.
Britain's futile war on chatroom abusers has been observed with frustration by the Internet Service Providers Association of Ireland (ISPAI), the self-regulatory body representing ISPs such as eircom.net, indigo.ie and Ireland On-Line. Established on foot of the 1998 government working group report into "Illegal and Harmful Use of the Internet", ISPAI operates an Internet hotline to which the public can report online abuse. Chairman Cormac Callanan admits it is nearly impossible to police the Web, particularly from Ireland, which is geographically removed from the bulk of chatroom "host" computers.
"Internationally, there have been countless attempts to make chatrooms safe - from flagging sites as appropriate for children to using online moderators who keep a lookout for suspicious behaviour to installing panic buttons with which frightened children can raise the alarm. The difficulty is that kids using these services are often seeking privacy. If you earmark a site as "appropriate" or let them know that adults are watching for bad behaviour, they may grow wary and seek out another, more covert, chatroom," he says.
Child protection agencies say parental vigilance is the best defence against cyber stalkers. The Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC) recommends that the family computer be placed in a communal area rather than out of sight. Parents should limit the amount of time their children spend on the Internet and not allow them use a computer in their bedroom. And youngsters must be warned to never reveal personal details such as their address, school or phone number.
Because of Ireland's physical remoteness, it is unlikely that paedophiles frequenting teen chat rooms could act upon information coaxed from Irish children, according to Mr Callanan. But ISPCC chief executive Paul Gilligan warns that paedophiles don't need to come face to face with a victim to perpetrate abuse. He points to British research suggesting one in five teenagers frequenting chat room has been subjected to sexual harassment.
"The stalker will pose as a teenager and encourage victims to discuss their feelings or sexual experiences. Later, after establishing a rapport and building up trust, the offender will become abusive and suggestive," he says.
Yet nobody knows how often this is happening. ISPAI runs its hotline in conjunction with the Internet Advisory Board, a government body appointed after the 1998 working group study. In its first annual report, presented by the Minister for Children, Ms Mary Hanafin, last month, IAB revealed that the hotline was alerted to at least one case child pornography every day. However, the IAB deputy chairman, Mr John Haskins, says the service received a negligible number of complaints about chatrooms. While the dissemination of paedophile images over the Internet was prohibited in 1995, cyber-stalking has never been made a criminal offence here.
"Legally, the whole area of Internet policing is something of a tangle. Practically all of the chatrooms that attract teenagers are hosted by servers located abroad. So even if there are clear cases of abuse there is little the authorities here can do," says Haskins.
It is often difficult to determine if abuse has actually occurred, says Cormac Callanan.
"Where do you draw the line between innocent questions and ones that are unacceptably suggestive? Are we saying that adults shouldn't ever communicate with children on chatrooms? Or that teenagers shouldn't be allowed to discuss sex? Often it is the intent of the person which is of essence and intent can be hard to establish."
At the core of the problem lies the deepening tension between the utopian ideals and anti-censorship ethos underpinning the Internet and the need to protect individuals at risk from those seeking to take advantage of the medium's open boundaries.
"The Internet is merely a conduit for people's thoughts and desires. Ultimately, cyber-stalking is a phenomenon rooted in society and one which society itself must address," says Mr Callanan.