Law catching up with online sex crimes

Experts say the web is ripe for cyber stalking because criminals feel safe from detection.

In this story: Case solved Criminal tech tools RELATED STORIES

By CNN's Kristie Lu Stout

HONG KONG, China (CNN) -- The Internet may be known for its anonymity, but it's no longer providing a cloak of secrecy for Asia's net-using sex offenders.

Law enforcement officials have begun tightening their nets around virtual criminals, making it possible to catch and sentence Hong Kong's first cyber stalker to prison for threatening victims online.

Case solved

Ko Kam-Fai, the 23-year-old virtual stalker, sent obscene photographs and rape threats to two female university students in Hong Kong.

He was arrested in August, after he continued to send messages to the women recounting chillingly accurate details of their lives.

"There were a number of laws that he broke," Anthony Fung, a senior inspector from the Commercial Crime Bureau of Hong Kong's Police Force said. "For example, criminal intimidation, where he said he would rape the victims in the school hallway."

Police say Ko hacked into his victim's personal computers and caused criminal damage by rearranging digital content. He also spammed and attempted to sabotage the university email system.

Cyber stalking in Asia is rare. Still, investigators say virtual stalking and other online sex offenses will likely increase as Internet usage in the region rises.

Prosecutor Richard Turnbull of Hong Kong's Department of Justice believes the Internet provides a ripe environment for cyber stalking because potential criminals believe they're safe from detection.

"It [provides] anonymity," Turnbull says. "That is, you can approach a victim, or send messages to a victim, or threaten a victim through the computer system on the Internet and not even be in the same country."

Criminal tech tools

Even technology like Netbus can inadvertently aid a potential criminal. The software's creator, Ultra Access Networks, calls Netbus a "monitoring tool" to track what employees are up to on the job.

But it's the same program Ko used to hunt and track his victims online.

Additional office tools can also take cyber stalking to a more invasive level. Fung says Web cameras are particularly convenient for the cyber stalker.

"This goes quite extremely into the intrusion of a person's privacy," Fung says.

"The suspect could actually control someone's Web camera if that victim had a Web camera installed. They could record all sounds without the victim's permission, so therefore, the suspect could actually capture the person's daily movement."

With the potential danger increasing, policy makers and law enforcement agencies are beginning to create legislation to find and punish online sex offenders before they cause harm.

"All countries are playing what I would call catch-up football, and that's been the history of the legal system since Adam and Eve," Turnbull said.

"But at least they're moving rather quickly now, and I envisage that the problems that we now face will be overcome."

Should cyber ethics be taught at school?

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