A new phenomenon is spreading like an epidemic: Webcam Child Sex Tourism (WCST). Men from rich countries pay children in poor countries to perform sexual acts in front of webcams.

Our solution: pro-active policing. To raise awareness and pressure governments to act, we created Sweetie, an interactive 3D model that looked and moved like a 10-year-old girl. Using Sweetie, we caught 1,000 predators from 71 countries and we gave their dossiers to Interpol during our international press conference.

Objectives:

To raise international awareness about WCST, and to pressure governments to take immediate steps to stop WCST.

To raise awareness and pressure governments to take action against WCST, we set an online trap: We created Sweetie to identify 1,000 online predators from 71 countries trying to pay children to perform sexual acts in front of webcams. We proved that the solution was effective by identifying so many predators in just 10 weeks.

We made a short film about this project, which led viewers to sign an online petition calling on governments to take concrete actions to stop online predators in rich countries who pay to abuse children in poor countries.

Over 1 billion people saw the campaign. We proved that our solution is effective in stopping predators. Our petition has already gotten over half a million signatures and will be used in the coming months to pressure governments to do more. WCST is on the world agenda and governments are already taking action:

Police in the UK, US, Canada, Australia, Ireland, Belgium, and South Africa arrested predators based on evidence we collected. The Philippines Police announced that WCST is the country’s #1 crime. Argentina increased penalties for perpetrators of WCST. Dozens of children have been rescued in the Philippines.

The fundamental value behind Terre des Hommes' brand is the protection of children. As the organization's slogan states, TdH 'stops child exploitation'. That's why we developed the perfect trap to stop online predators trying to abuse children. The creative execution showed the world that if we could catch 1,000 predators in just 10 weeks, police forces around the world could catch more than 100,000 each year. We proved that this abuse can be stopped if citizens pressure their governments to take action, and we set an example that is now being followed by governments and police around the world.