Why has a 12-year-old girl received NOK 1,000 from a stranger via Vipps? The question troubled the parents who had discovered the transfer. The girl’s explanation caused the alarm to go off. Together with a friend, the girl had connected on the website Omegle. Here you can video chat with strangers from all over the world, completely anonymously. One of them the two girls met on the website was employed at a school in Nordland. By offering the girls money, the man had made them show their naked bodies on video. It was winter when the man was arrested by the police. As usual, they seized electronic devices. Mobile phone, PC, things like that. And quickly the local police realized they needed help. The parents of the aforementioned girls have been informed about the case via their assistance lawyer. An everyday life behind a screen Kristine Stemnes sits behind computer screens that can make any gamer envious. They are state-of-the-art, long and curve elegantly along the wall. But what Stemnes has up on their screens is far from cheerful. THE TEAM: From left: Alexander Amundsen and Kristine Solem Stemnes, Gerd Emilie Røegh and Tor-Henrik Horn make up the Sobi team at the police in Nordland. Their job is to investigate sexual abuse of children on the internet. Photo: Ola Helness / news Kristine Stemnes is one of the four investigators who work in the police’s so-called Sobi team. Their job is to investigate sexual abuse of children on the internet. The man they arrested last winter had an online log that was cause for concern. Search terms such as “young teen” appeared in several places. They found a recording of the incident that started it all, the two girls who had undressed in front of the camera. But it didn’t stop there. Two sisters and a video camera – He often went straight to the point, says investigator Alexander Amundsen. LIVE: This is a screenshot from one of the recordings the police found on the accused man’s computer. Photo: Screen dump / The police And the man has recorded what is happening. Investigator Alexander Amundsen flips through several videos. In one of the videos there are two young girls. Amundsen assumes that we are talking about an older and younger sister. The oldest of them holds a camera, while she does as the man says in the chat on her sister. New video. – This boy looks like he is 7-8 years old, says Amundsen. – So he is on Omegle and masturbating together with the accused. Another video. Two boys this time. One is naked, while the friend performs oral sex on him. The accused man pleads guilty to the conditions the police have so far uncovered, says the man’s defender Finn Ove Smith. The police found over 500 videos on the accused’s devices, which makes it one of the biggest assault cases in Norwegian history. Videos of Norwegian children who do as the man says for payment. Alexander Amundsen and his colleagues must see everyone. DEMANDING JOB: Alexander Amundsen often takes breaks in his work. simply to clear his head from all the impressions he is exposed to in everyday work. Photo: Ola Helness / news – The worst is the sound One of the things the police investigators have to find out is how old the children are. Are they above or below the sexual minimum age of 16? Are the children over or under 14? The younger they are, the more severe the punishment. – The worst thing is going through videos with sound. And thinking about all those who are exposed to abuse that you have no chance of saving, says Kristine Stemnes. Because there are many things to take care of. – Society has significant challenges related to the sexual exploitation of children on the internet, says Helge Haugland. – The extent to which there is actually an increase in such incidents, or whether it is us who have become better at uncovering them, is difficult to say. Haugland is section leader at the section for internet-related abuse at Kripos. This is often where much of the investigation starts. COOPERATION: Helge Haugland and Kripos work closely with international police and large technology companies. Photo: Trond Stenersen / news Kripos constantly receives tips about possible abuse cases. For example from companies such as Snapchat and Omegle, or from the police in other countries. Kripos then goes through the information they have. Is the possible assailant from Bergen or Bodø? Is this an issue that needs to be prioritized quickly? Is there ongoing abuse, or is there “old” abuse material that is spreading. Does the perpetrator have access to children? When the information is in place, the case is sent to the police districts. A few years ago, Kripos forwarded around 500 such cases to the districts a year. In 2022, the figure will approach 3,000. The police in Bodø clear many of the cases, but not all. That thought is demanding for Kristine Stemnes. – But we can’t think too much about it. We get to do what we get to do, and make a difference with what we do, she says. And many of the victims remain unknown. IMPORTANT PIECE: Kristine Solem Stemnes is sure that the report from the parents who reacted to the Vipps payments was decisive for them exposing the accused man. Photo: Ola Helness / news Several hundred children we don’t know who are Omegle, the website the accused man has used, is completely legal. The whole point of the website is to talk to strangers you don’t know who they are. Although there is an 18-year age limit on Omegle, there is no age control. With the help of simple keystrokes, anyone can get in. Precisely this also contributes to making the platform interesting for abusers. – We see that the number of cases is increasing. Only in Nordland do we have more cases, says Kristine Stemnes. This answers Omegle news has sent several questions to Omegle. We wonder: What thoughts do they have about the Norwegian police registering an increasing number of assaults carried out on Omegle? What are they doing to prevent abuse via the platform? Why is there a need for such a platform, when it turns out to be a place where abuse keeps happening? This is Omegle’s answer: We offer our users a unique opportunity to communicate with people from all over the world, with different backgrounds and experiences. An offer that became more important than ever during the pandemic. We take users’ safety seriously. Although users are responsible for their own safety when using our platform, we have introduced several moderation services that use both artificial intelligence and human moderators. Content that is marked as illegal, inappropriate or that violates Omegle’s guidelines may receive several different reactions, including that we may report it to the relevant police authorities. We also collaborate with both national and international police and other organizations to stop the exploitation of children on the internet. You do not need to enter your name or other information either. So in far too many cases, a face is the only thing the police have to go by to try to figure out who the kids in the videos are. That is one of the reasons why Alexander Amundsen and his colleagues in the police must review all the videos in their entirety. TWO SISTERS: The video Alexander Amundsen is watching contains two sisters who have been abused over the internet. Photo: Alexander Karlsen / news – Suddenly they give up a username on Snapchat or other information that can help us on the way, he says. If the police manage to track down the IP address of the computer the children have used, they can find out who it is. And at New Year’s there was a new set of regulations which means that IP addresses must be stored for one year. But the accused in the case has been at it for many years. And before the new rules came into effect, IP addresses were only stored for three weeks. So far in the investigation, the police have only been able to identify 10 children. 10 children from several hundred videos. – It is frustrating. Many children who do not understand what they are doing. In many cases, the children do this voluntarily. They explore their sexuality on the internet. But they think they do it with people their own age. They don’t know that there is a grown man on the other end recording. And the footage can quickly go astray. – Shouldn’t feel safe Cases involving abuse of children on the internet are often extensive and complicated. Far from all cases are about easy downloading and sharing. The abusers are becoming increasingly skilled, and there are many who earn a lot of money from the distribution of gross abuse images and videos. In some places in the world, parents are willing to facilitate the abuse of their own children just to survive. The accused man in this case has been in custody for four whole months. That says something about how demanding the case is to investigate. Recently, the police asked for a further 12 weeks in custody. So far, they have got through around half of the videos involving children aged 8 to 16, most of them under 14. So far, the police believe they have uncovered dozens of rapes. They hope to have the case fully investigated this summer. Six months of review of abuse material, carried out via the internet. – The driving force is that you can help make a difference, says Kristine Stemnes. – It feels meaningful to work on these matters. After all, it is about the most vulnerable people we have in society, innocent children who are exposed to abuse. And according to Helge Haugland in Kripos, the abusers should not feel safe. Police methods and technology are also developing. For example, technical solutions that can uncover sexual exploitation in chat platforms. Many of the major internet services cooperate closely with the police all over the world. Like for example Vipps. This is how Vipps works in the fight against abuse Photo: Vipps – The collaboration with the police started quite immediately after Vipps was launched. But it wasn’t until we got really big that we started to discover such cases, says Caroline Lunde in Vipps. As of today, they have around 20 people working to uncover suspicious or illegal transactions. – We have always had a strong focus on this area, with several investigators who have specialized in this form of crime. Our team that works in this area has close cooperation and dialogue with relevant units in the police, says Lunde. She advises parents to regularly check the transactions their children have in Vipps. They regularly report cases to the police that deal with the sale and purchase of sexualized material involving minors. – Preventing, detecting and reporting such cases to the police is one of the most important and serious things we do at Vipps, says Lunde. – We have a responsibility to make it difficult to use our channels for illegal activities, without being detected. A close and good dialogue with the police is important, as our transaction data can discover completely new cases, but also contribute strongly as evidence in an investigation. – There are more and more providers who want to contribute to the fight against sexual exploitation of children. In addition, the Sobi teams around the police districts are proving to bear fruit. – Their work is absolutely crucial. The development is very positive. We uncover more, and introduce more and more appropriate measures, says Haugland. – Sometimes the perpetrators are in front of us, but we find that we are often so close that we manage to expose them. And while the accused man in this case is in custody in Bodø, the Sobi team is getting ready for another arrest. This time by a man who has been charged with sharing abuse material online. NEW ARREST: The Sobi team of the police in Nordland arrested a person this week for sharing abuse material online. Photo: Alexander Karlsen / news Do you have any tips or input? Hi! Do you have tips, input or thoughts in connection with this matter? I’d love to hear about them, so email me! Do you need to talk to someone after reading this story? Acute suicide risk? Call 113 when it is urgent and your life is at stake. Call the emergency room on tel. 116117 for immediate assistance. On your municipality’s website, you can see which low-threshold offers are available where you live. Other help: Source: Nssfinfo.no
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Suspicious transmission via Vipps revealed several hundred abuses on the internet in Nordland – news Nordland
