Reader’s Digest International — August 2017

August• 2017 | 77

READER’S DIGEST

the UK, Poland and the US have been

arrested for their interactions with

Sweetie and at least nine have been

convicted. There are probably more

convictions but exact numbers are

difficult to track as no-one is obliged

to report them to Terre des Hommes.

SWEETIE’S WORKhas just begun.

She has now been turned into an au-

tomated chatbot, called Sweetie 2.0,

that can simultaneously chat in many

chatrooms and that warns and deters

(potential) offenders of webcam sex

with children. Testing of the new ver-

sion started in September last year

and is set to run for three or four years.

Information on the worst repeat per-

petrators encountered will be passed

on to Europol and Interpol, and the

software will be offered to law enforce-

ment agencies around the world.

“One in four individuals who start

with watching child pornography will

then move on to hands-on child sexual

abuse,” says Hans. “Early intervention

with Sweetie 2.0 could stop that.”

With the collaboration of police

forces internationally, Sweetie 2.0 has

the potential to make predators such

as Hansen think twice before attempt-

ing to abuse children on the other side

of the world.

material and breach of recognisance
but for “using a carriage service to
transmit indecent communication to
a person under 16 years of age”.
Hansen had used the internet to
Skype indecent videos of himself to
Sweetie. Yet this ‘person’ was not
a child at all, but rather a team of
men posing as a vulnerable little girl.
Hansen had already pleaded guilty
on all three counts. Now how would
the judge sentence Hansen, with the
knowledge that Sweetie was in fact
not a real girl at all?
In her closing comments, public
prosecutor Laura-Leigh Manville didn’t
mince words describing the obscene
acts Hansen had performed before the
camera and Sweetie, all the while be-
lieving Sweetie to be a young Filipina.
She asked that the judge treat this case
as if Sweetie were a real person.
In sentencing, Judge Ryrie said
Hansen had “a protracted interest in
targeting children in various ways.”
The fact the girl was not real was irrel-
evant, she said: “If you believe that’s a
nine-year-old girl, then that’s the law,
that’s good enough.” She sentenced
Hansen to two years in prison.
It was Sweetie’s first conviction.
Since Hansen’s sentencing, men in
Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands,

WORK WISDOM

The closest a person ever comes to perfection is when he fills out

a job application form.STANLEY RANDALL, BUSINESSMAN