children,sexual violence,
As part of efforts to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, schools across the country have closed. On the part of the people who are afraid of the viral wave, there is an even more terrifying problem. When children are at home, they are online, and child predators will not miss this opportunity. A recent report published by the European Union's law enforcement agency, Europol, indicated that there is an increase in digital activity among those trying to sexually exploit children online. Child predators post on forums where they expect young people to be most vulnerable to exploitation due to social isolation, lack of censorship, and spending a lot of time on computers. At the end of March, the FBI issued a warning of this danger to parents across the country.
Because of sexual shyness, from which exploiters pass on to their victims, children often keep those communications with their exploiters secret until things get out of hand. we live in a society where sex is often seen as a bad or shameful thing. Children do not want to talk about it with their parents. if the abuser obtains sexual images of the child, the victim may fear that his or her parents will pass on the substance. this fear of sexual shame can be devastating and an obstacle to reporting such exploitation. Children usually do not realize that they are the victims in such situations. even if they realize this, they will fear that others will have a different or bad opinion of them because of their involvement in a sexual act, and thus remain silent.
Statistical data indicates that girls between the ages of 11 to 13 are increasingly subjected to deception, seduction and coercion to perform sexual acts in front of their Internet cameras.
The Internet Watch Foundation said that 80% of the sexual selfies it found during its diligent search on the Internet for images of sexual abuse were images of children of this age. last year, 37,000 images were subjected to research led by the foundation, and it turned out that 30,000 of them were of children of the same age. the foundation's chief executive said the number of cases was growing at an alarming rate. Susie Hargreaves described the distribution of such photos and videos, which are often personally produced in local settings, as a "national crisis".these films often have children looking at the cameras and reading messages asking them to do something and they comply.
The Internet Watch Foundation says that a third of the content of web pages showing images of child molestation is made up of self-produced images, mostly by girls around their homes. there has never been a good time like now to highlight such a bitter truth that we are facing. the victims have recently become younger girls, because they have easy access to webcams from their phones in their bedrooms. at this age, girls are incredibly vulnerable. their bodies are still growing, and they are not emotionally mature to understand what is going on. this is why they are flattered, and they are told that they are beautiful. They often think they are in a relationship with someone.
There are many ways to blackmail these girls. For example, one of the victims says that she was asked to send nude pictures of her online to someone claiming to be a woman who employs models. the victim, who was 13 years old at the time, said that the man's behavior towards her completely changed, after she sent him the pictures. she was also forced to send more pictures and her home address under threat to print the first picture and post it near her school if she did not comply of which. and it went on until he came to her house, sexually assaulted her in her bedroom and took more pictures.
The head of the National Police Command Council on Child Protection, Simon Bailey, said, “Action like this seeks to educate people about the law and encourage them to take responsibility, especially reporting any sexual images or videos of under-18s, as this contributes to reducing crime, removing inappropriate content from the Internet, and most importantly reducing harm to victims.”
Tink Palmer, of the Mary Collins Foundation, which works with the Internet Watch Foundation, said on the issue," the amount of inappropriate content showing children is increasing. all Internet users should understand that they are breaking the law if they look at this material. regardless of who made it or uploaded it on the internet.”
Parents should have frank conversations with their children, and take a non-judgmental approach. Shame is a dangerous factor here, and it can lead children to hide risky online communications as they develop. Shame feeds on silence. So we must tell our children that they can talk to us about sex, and that we will not have a different or bad opinion of them because of this discussion. We have to remind our children that we will love them no matter what. And to explain to them that if an adult ever sexually exploits them, it's not their fault, and that they should tell us.
Talk to them about suspicious behavior,strangers asking them to keep their relationships secret, asking them for their personal information, asking to transfer conversations with them to less censored platforms like SnapChat, or offering them gifts such as insider credits digital games. Child Helpline International has created an international database of hotlines that parents can contact if they have concerns about their children being sexually abused or exploited. The non-profit organization End Violence Against Children has organized resources for parents to keep their children safe while accessing a variety of online platforms, from Snapchat to Xbox.
We live in a scary time. fear for our health dominates our thinking and occupies our attention. but small conversations can protect our children while they are online. talk to your children. have open discussions with them about the risks and harms. and keep them safe.
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