SAPPORO -- Year by year, sexual assaults and other major crimes committed against children by strangers they met over social media are occurring more in Japan, and a conspicuous tactic by the perpetrators is the use of multiple deceptive accounts.

In a case this year in Japan's northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido, a girl aged 13 and another aged 14 were each raped by someone they had met via social media. The 40-year-old man who was sentenced in the case had over the course of about eight years used between five and 10 social media accounts to repeatedly pay minors for sex.

Prior to sentencing, the man told the Mainichi Shimbun that he had pretended to be a completely different person with each account, drawing information from his victims in order to "make sure" they could meet each other.

According to the National Police Agency, in 2018 there were 91 victims of serious crimes under the age of 18 who were acquainted with the perpetrator over social media. In 2023, this number had risen to 225. Among these were many victims of sex crimes, including 96 victims of rape and 33 of indecent assault.

Lawyer Fumiko Suda, chair of the "Yuinet Hokkaido" nonprofit which assists sexual assault victims and manages the Sexual Assault Crisis Relief Assist Center Hokkaido, pointed out, "In a notable number of cases, they meet and get caught up in crimes not knowing the stranger has sexual intent."

Among the consultations reportedly fielded by the group, one child was taken to a hotel by a stranger they met after the individual commented, "You're cute" on their photo on social media. Another was sexually assaulted after being taken in a vehicle by a person who promised to buy them a mobile phone.

Suda pointed out the increasing sophistication of their tactics, saying, "It is not rare for perpetrators to use multiple accounts, and in many cases, they deceive children by using false names and ages." She added, "For children, once they meet someone it is difficult to refuse sexual acts. I'd like the adults around them to also be attentive so as to not allow them to directly meet strangers."

(Japanese original by Karen Goto, Hokkaido News Department)