#online-child-exploitation

#online-child-exploitation

The defendant, a 21-year-old German-Iranian national living in the northern city of Hamburg, has been only partially identified as Shahriar J., in line with German privacy rules. The case shines a spotlight on the dark world of sadistic online exploitation, where predators seek out vulnerable youths and manipulate them to commit acts of self-harm, violence against themselves or animals, or to kill themselves.

Since the early days of the internet, with AOL chatrooms and online bulletin boards, there have been unhealthy, dangerous, and predatory individuals who used these electronic environments to act inappropriately towards minors. Children and adolescents have received disturbing sexual comments and solicitations from online creeps. Sometimes, these individuals would attempt to meet up with the children, even sometimes traveling across the country to meet the child in person.