Page 1 of 28 SEXUAL CRIMES COMMITTED THROUGH THE INTERNET * Prof. Dr. Murat Volkan Dülger * ABSTRACT If sexual offenses to take into account are only the types of crimes that are prescribed in criminal codes, the concept of sexual offenses would be perceived no more than sexual harassment, molestation, simple sexual assault and qualified sexual assault. However, the concept of sexual offenses is broader than and beyond these in terms of the effects. Especially after the informatics revolution with the internet becoming an indispensable part of our lives and with the transfer of all kinds of personal data including our private lives to social media, the frequency and the impact area of these offenses are increased unforeseeably. In the pre-internet era, being close enough to a person to have physical contact with him in order to commit a sexual crime is at least a letter, etc. Today, it is extremely easy for the perpetrator to remain anonymous and sexually assault digitally. While it makes difficult to find the perpetrator on the other hand it is an environment that facilitates the commission of the crime. Lately “revenge porn” is the most common example of that ex-partner or spouse shares anonymously the other one's naked images or videos during sexual affair. Another method of committing sexual crime that digital era brought out, is to force the victim to have sexual intercourse with perpetrator himself or with third parties by blackmailing with the victims’ private images or information obtained somehow from the digital environment. Another sexual offense is providing an easy access to the contents including child pornography, animal pornography or violence. Especially these are the methods of committing crime against which the whole world has been fighting. In this article, I will try to make a general assessment about the sexual crimes which is exactly a very old type of crime, transformation of sexual crime in today’s digital world, opportunities that created in a negative way by perpetrators and methods of dealing with them. Keywords: internet, sexual offense, sexual assault, sexual harassment, cybercrime, revenge pornography, child pornography. * This is the translation of my paper that I presented at the 14th Criminal Law Days, the main topic of which was “Sexual Crimes”, hosted by Istanbul University Faculty of Law on 14 - 16 June 2019 in memory of Prof. Dr. İbrahim Dülger. * Istanbul Aydın University Faculty of Law, Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure Law and IT Law.