Résumé
This paper reports the experience of Queensland police in the investigation of predatory behaviour by men seeking sex with children through online chat rooms. It reports on the 25 investigations into online grooming completed by the Queensland Police in the period June 2003 and September 2004 under the code name Task Force Argos, and includes a discussion of three successful prosecutions. The investigations involved police officers posing as girls aged between 13 and 16 accessing the internet in order to uncover adults who were seeking to procure children online for sexual activity. The results of this study show the aggressive and rapid way that children are targeted by adults for sexual purposes. In 76 per cent of cases the suspect was arrested for an offence within one month of the first online contact. In 68 per cent of cases the adult sought offline contact with the child. In 48 per cent of cases the adult suspect was arrested at the intended rendezvous with the child. This work is the result of a collaboration between the Australian Institute of Criminology and the Australian High Tech Crime Centre.