Playing with Nudes

Radio Télévision Suisse | 12min
Postproduction script

00:00:03,102 VO: -In the canton of Neuchâtel, the mother of a 14 year old boy received a delicate call.

00:00:12,480 Mother: -The police informed us that our son had posted pictures on Instagram with sexual overtones. The message was: "Young man with large eggplant seeks nudes." He wanted pictures.

00:00:37,475 VO: -The eggplant is the symbol of the male genitalia. Nudes are naked images that young people exchange. This boy is a normal teenager.

00:00:48,040 Mother: -He is a fairly well-balanced child, an athletic, good student. He's not on social media all the time.

00:00:56,920 Interviewer: -How was he discovered?

Mother: -In the United States. He was surprised that it went that far.

00:01:09,040 VO: -Posted in Switzerland, the message had been spotted in the United States, like millions of other sexual messages. The young people are under surveillance.

1’26 Title: Playing with Nudes

00:01:29,080 VO: Daniel Favre goes around local schools to educate young people. He has an appointment with a school to talk to thirteen year olds addicted to social media.

00:01:41,183 Daniel: -In front, you; come, come. First, who is on social media? OK; Instagram? Snapchat? OK. TikTok? Facebook? Who has twerked on TikTok? What's up? You?

00:02:06,880 Boy: -No!

Daniel: -Who knows what twerking is? Go ahead.

Boy 2: -It's when you move your buttocks.

00:02:14,920 Daniel: -Okay, that's right. And you know you're wiggling your ass for the whole world? Yeah, we're gonna talk about about something that interests you. Who's ever seen nudes?

00:02:34,840 Girl: -I saw one on my sister's phone. One of her friends had sent it from a website. He sent it to my sister, but they are ten years old.

00:02:45,680 Daniel: -How old?!

Girl: -Ten years old.

00:02:48,160 Daniel: -Oh, yeah. What does "do you nude?" mean?

Boy: -If you're sending out naked videos.

00:02:57,752 Daniel: -So you're on social media and someone might ask you that?

00:03:02,480 Boy 2: -Yeah.

Daniel: -Has that happened to you?

00:03:05,513 Boy 2: -Yeah.

00:03:06,599 Daniel: -If you're under 16, because 16 is the age of consent here, and you photograph yourself with your phone, you are producing child pornography. These images can end up anywhere. If you don't want them to circulate, just don't take them. Where are the applications hosted?

Child: -United States.

00:03:30,480 Daniel: -Yes, they have an NGO that deals with child pornography called NCMEC. These people are filtering photos with software, etc. If you have been reported for distributing child pornography, you will be in trouble.

00:03:51,760 VO: -Dirty pictures taken or shared end up in Virginia. NCMEC fights against the sexual exploitation of children.

00:04:03,090 Rebecca: In the United States, there is a law that requires US-based electronic service providers to make reports when they’re made aware of any kind of child sexual abuse material that they find on their platform. It’s Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google, Microsoft, Snapchat, TikTok…

4’07 Rebecca Steinbach, NCMEC USA

00:04:22,859 VO: -In these offices, 80 experts examine the content transmitted by the applications. Last year, NCMEC received 22 million whistle-blower reports involving 144 countries.

00:04:38:220 Rebecca: Due to the large number of reports, we at NCMEC have been utilising technology, whether hashing technologies, video matching technologies, to find and detect this kind of content. So we get information on people’s names, email addresses, screen names, sometimes phone numbers. We’re automatically forwarding that information onto law enforcement in that company so they can make it a termination.

00:05:10,836 VO: -In Switzerland, the federal police receives NCMEC reports. In 2020, they received 7,852 reports, which resulted in 1,066 investigations.

00:05:25,586 Yanis: -First, we check if the pictures are problematic under Swiss law.

5’30 Yanis Callandret, Chief of Berne Federal Police (FedPol)

00:05:34,095 VO: -Then, they have to locate who made or exchanged them. These images helped to arrest an active pedophile in Switzerland.

00:05:43,960 Yanis: -The person who received these images maintained hundreds of contacts with young people. He was going to make appointments to have sex with minors for money.

00:05:57,480 VO: -FedPol also receives videos that look like children's jokes, from younger and younger children.

00:06:05,320 Yanis: -From the age of 3, 4, 5 years old, young people are filming themselves and make a sort of private show. Reports of denunciation are sent to the Canton. There is the document with the evidence that kickstarts the investigation.

00:06:35,720 VO: -At the headquarters of the Neuchâtel police, 15 DVDs have arrived since the beginning of 2022.

00:06:44,891 Daniel: -There is the IP address, the person who logged in, the time of connection, we have everything. This is the case with the "eggplant" text. Here you have: "Message me if you're a girl, I do nude swaps. I'm 14, I'm a guy with a big eggplant emoji." The federal police say: "We can't rule out that an adult posing as a minor might be using this account to obtain pictures of child sexuality." We think this is a child's text, but is it really?

00:07:23,490 VO: -In this case, it was a kid who was summoned by the police. This other case is interesting to the police.

00:07:32,400 Daniel: -He says, "I have to do my thing." He steps back, lifts the sweater, drops his pants. He shows his genitalia.

00:07:43,640 Boy on video: Yes, Mom?

00:07:47,036 Daniel: -The mother calls him for dinner. They are children. We're not hunting for images of children. We want to fight against pedophilia. That's the goal, and the children are not the pedophiles.

7’56 Daniel Favre, Head of Prevention, Neuchâtel Police

00:08:05,933 VO: -A new file has just arrived on the police officer's desk. We see it being solved.

00:08:13,560 Daniel: -Children have been sharing pictures in a WhatsApp group. Apparently, they were shocking. Parents alerted other parents. These are photos with rough sexual acts, like sodomy, quite hard. The child will be summoned with a parent and I will talk to him about the future consequences of his acts.

00:08:48,440 VO: -Jessica is the mother of this twelve-year-old boy. In two hours, she will go to the police with her son.

00:08:57,495 Jessica: -We have to accept the facts as they are. We're here to raise awareness on the fact that we were not... We didn't imagine that it would go this far. I hope he'll understand and won't do it again.

9’02 Jessica

00:09:17,960 VO: -The three friends were discovered by their parents. Jessica didn't see this coming.

00:09:28,120 Jessica: -He was uncomfortable and was very sorry. He is very modest and that's what surprised me too. He's very embarrassed about anything relating to sexuality.

00:09:47,840 Child: -We were on WhatsApp. My friends sent images like this. I don't know why, I wanted to post some too, just to make people laugh.

00:09:59,280 Interviewer: -What did you think of the pictures?

Child: -I thought they were funny.

00:10:04,693 Interviewer: -Wasn't it shocking?

Child: -Yes, a little. It shocks me and makes me laugh, depending on which one. I'm going to go to the police. Afterwards, I don't know.

00:10:25,587 VO: -In Neuchâtel, the juvenile justice will not open criminal proceedings. The youngster will be spoken to by the police officer.

00:10:37,039 Daniel: -Good morning.

Jessica: -Good morning.

00:10:38,960 VO: -This is a reminder of the law.

00:10:46,312 Daniel: -Here we are. Nice to see you in person. Do you know why you're here?

Child: -Yes

00:10:58,701 Daniel: -Why?

Child: -I made a mistake.

00:11:01,836 Daniel: -What is it?

00:11:03,381 Child: -On my phone, I sent some pictures.

00:11:05,883 Daniel: -What kind of pictures?

Child: -Pornographic ones.

00:11:08,908 Daniel: -Pornographic, yes. Is that what you sent? There are thumbnails.

Child: -I took this from others.

00:11:16,142 Daniel: -Yeah, and you posted a picture with your name on it and these are acts with children.

00:11:23,280 Child: -Yeah

00:11:26,480 Jessica: -I've never seen this before.

00:11:28,529 Daniel: -Normally, we would report you to a juvenile judge. From the age of 10, you can be punished by the law. Since this is the first time, I can also discuss with you and tell you that if you do it again I won't be that nice next time. Later on, everyone will remind you of what you did as a child. Do you promise me that you don't have anything on your phone? I can come to your school and ask for your phone. And it won't be the same regarding the law, right?

00:12:05,055 VO: -The youngster promises not to do it again.

12’15 Credits:

Anne-Frédérique Widmann
Benjamin Radice
Audrey Morel
Nicolas Picard
Bruno Rochet
Henri Michiels
Lison Amiot
Sébastien Fawer
Elias Siddiqui