Young people deprived of school and predators confined to their homes by the pandemic: this explosive cocktail has caused a surge in online sexual abuse of children across the world, warn NGOs and police.
Many pedophiles have taken advantage of the restrictions linked to Covid-19 to contact minors, often in developing countries like the Philippines or Indonesia but not only, via social networks, online gaming sites or the dark web.
Read also: Children now exposed to porn from primary school
In Australia, federal police received more than 21,000 reports of child sexual abuse - sometimes under a year of age - in the 12 months to the end of June, more than 7,000 more than the year former.
"
Some of these dark web sites crash because they can't cope with the traffic,
" notes Paula Hudson, investigator for the Australian Federal Police.
Police “
directly
”
attribute
this “
incredible influx
” to the fact that pedophiles and children are spending more time at home, she said, with the closure of schools leaving young people to fend for themselves.
"
The containments linked to Covid-19 have created an explosive cocktail conducive to an increase in the sexual exploitation of children online
", notes in Manila John Tanagho of the NGO International Justice Mission (IJM) which fights sex trafficking.
The Philippine government recorded a 260% jump in reports of content related to child abuse from March to May, a period of strict confinement in the country, Unicef said.
Investigators even "
saw specific forums to discuss opportunities that arise during Covid,
" one of them with more than 1,000 members, notes Paula Hudson.
Abuse broadcast live
The exploitation of children follows the demand of pedophiles, says John Tanagho.
And the abuse is often repeated on a regular basis.
In developing countries where families stranded at home have lost jobs and incomes, children are sometimes exploited by their own parents who broadcast live images for predators in rich countries, often with just a smartphone.
“
Abuse responds to a command, is paid for and consumed live by criminals all over the world who do not need to leave the comfort of their homes,
” he says.
These children are abused for an average of two years before being rescued.
And even if there is outside intervention, the trauma continues.
Mellanie Olano, social worker for the NGO IMJ in the Philippines, has participated in many operations to help these children.
"
It's quite chaotic when you arrive in a house where there is abuse, the children all start to cry,
" she told AFP.
Child victims are often on high alert, they have problems sleeping, cannot concentrate or control their feelings.
"
And of course, since most of the perpetrators are parents (...) they are separated from their parents,
" she describes.
"
The tip of the iceberg
"
In Indonesia, which has become a breeding ground for child sexual abuse like the Philippines, around 20% of young people say they have seen predatory behavior online, according to a survey by the Ecpat network which fights the sexual exploitation of minors.
Read also: Pédocriminality: 8 priests or religious currently indicted, increase in reports
West Java Police recently discovered a group on Line Mail that was offering live "
nude shows
" with several minors.
A 14-year-old girl was prompted to strip-tease online when her parents thought she was doing her homework in her bedroom.
This group has seen its members triple to 600 during the pandemic.
"
Parents must be even more attentive to the online activities of their children because in a few minutes they can become victims or perpetrators of crimes on the Internet,
" warns the Indonesian police commissioner Teuku Rasya Khadafi.
Pedophiles also pass through online gaming platforms, notes Glen Hulley, a former Australian police officer who works for the NGO Project Karma.
"
What we've seen most often during lockdown are criminals trying to talk to children in apps popular with young people, like gaming platforms with built-in messaging
."
They pretend to be young, pretend to be a famous Youtuber or even a star like Justin Bieber.
Children who are exploited do not come only from developing countries.
In early November, Australian police announced that they had arrested 14 men suspected of producing and sharing material showing sexual abuse, and identified 46 victims, including 16 from a single daycare in Australia.
This documented trend in Asia-Pacific holds true in many countries, according to an Interpol report which sounded the alarm in September.
In Germany, investigators said in June they had identified some 30,000 suspects of a "
very worrying
"
online pedophile network
.
As child criminal activity has moved online, the police have made efforts to track them, and have stepped up international cooperation. "The
more we investigate, the more we progress and the more we discover pedophiles,
" says Paula Hudson. But John Tanagho is less optimistic. "
It's a huge and global problem (...) and we only see the tip of the iceberg,
" he notes, calling on technology groups to develop tools to detect the streaming of sexual abuse .
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