It is pretty much uncontested that the world has changed enormously because of the fact that the internet has come into our lives. The internet has completely changed the way things are done, and one area where it has made changes in particularly significant ways is the manner in which we interact with one another. We can now communicate with people that are vast geographical distances apart from us, and not only this but we can communicate virtually instantly as well with messages taking no time at all to reach the intended recipient to the point where the only delays caused are by people that take time to open and respond to messages. Furthermore, we can communicate pretty much anonymously because of the fact that there are no markers such as phone numbers and the like which would help make it easier to identify you.
This last point is what has made the biggest impact on the world in terms of criminal activity. One area of criminal activity where this fact has made the biggest impact is in the world of sex crimes and the like which become incredibly easy to commit if it would be difficult for your victim to identify you. This is why legislation has been drafted that marks online sex crimes as serious offenses, allowing law enforcement agencies to catch the people committing these crimes in a much easier manner.
The important thing to remember when it comes to sex crimes and the penalties that are given out for them is that the age of the victim tends to matter a great deal. People are going to be far more willing to convict someone that was preying on children through the internet, making it much more difficult for such people to get away with what they have done. People that prey on children had started to use the internet a lot because it gave them an open area where they could find potential victims and approach them in a way that would make them, the predators, look innocuous and harmless.
Hence, online sex crimes are often treated seriously enough for them to be labelled class five felonies, with people that commit them being liable to go to jail for many years. The minimum sentence is usually a year, but it can stretch all the way to twenty years and even beyond if the judge in question feels like the crime that was committed was serious enough to warrant this kind of action.
Online sex crimes used to be treated rather poorly in the court of law, but recent changes to the way they are viewed has helped sex offenders be prosecuted far more severely than would have been the case if they had been caught a while go when the laws were not quite as strict. The trend is positive, and things are probably going to get even worse for online sex offenders and the like.