Children on the Internet - Law Enforcement Challenges

Abstract

The current technological development and the increased access of people of different ages to devices connected to the Internet pose new challenges to the law enforcement for preventing, as well as for investigating such crimes. Children, who have access to multiple devices connected to the internet, in association with other factors linked to their age, are a very vulnerable segment of population. As members of the implementation team of the Cyberex RO Project – Improving, cooperating and preventing in the fight against cybercrime, we conducted a research aiming to identify the main risks and vulnerabilities faced by young students aged 10 to 18 in Romania in the online environment. The results were used to train police officers from crime prevention units in Romania, in order to increase their understanding of cybercrime and current trends. This paper discusses the results of the qualitative analysis of interviews with law enforcement officers from ten counties in Romania regarding the main challenges that the police have faced in handling cyber cases involving children, in order to substantiate, on a scientific basis, the activities of preventing cybercrime against children.