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Sadichchha Pokharel,

Correspondent (Our World)

 

Terre des Hommes Netherlands, a children’s rights organisation, has identified more than 1,000 individuals from more than 65 countries who have engaged in webcam child sex tourism. The organisation recently carried out an investigation using a computer-generated model “Sweetie” who posed as 10-year-old Filipina in public chat rooms. Within less than two weeks more than 20,000 adult men had approached the child. Around a 1,000 had offered to pay her through wire transfer to perform sexual acts before the camera. The men were tracked using the social media details they provided and their video footage was later sent to the police for further investigation.

Webcam child sex tourism is a global phenomenon that has emerged with the rapid development of technology. Every day, thousands of children in poor countries — some of them as young as six years old — get sexually exploited over the internet by adults in rich countries. Tens of thousands of victims are abused in Philippines alone. The advancement of cyber culture has made it easier than ever to communicate with people across the globe, which has opened gates for predators and paedophiles to reach innocent children. United States, Britain and India have been identified as the top three countries with the maximum number of children predators online. Children in poor countries particularly get targeted, as cyber laws in these countries are more likely to be weaker and extreme poverty makes these children more vulnerable.

According to the FBI and the United Nations, more than 7,50,000 child predators are online at any given moment. They infest public chat rooms and online socialising platforms. These people manipulate young children into performing indecent sexual acts for them before the webcam, often luring them with a few dollars. The children are also shown disturbing sexual content from the other end, which traumatises them. It often has a severe impact on their mental health. Many of them go through depression and low self-esteem issues and are unable to maintain healthy social relationships.

While there are cyber laws against sexual exploitation of children in most countries, there is very little investigation done on these matters and predators often get away with their crime. Terre des Hommes has called upon governments and organisations worldwide to put an end to this global epidemic that is affecting thousands of children across the world. A petition was started earlier this week, which can be accessed on the organisation’s website or their .

Cyber crimes often get ignored due to the ambiguity of rules and regulations surrounding the web, as it is a fairly new platform that is still in the process of expansion. The virtual nature of the internet perhaps makes it easy for criminals to disguise themselves and get away with their crimes. However, that does not make their crimes any less significant. Child sex abuse is a serious issue that deserves a high degree of global attention. With the ease of internet access, there is a growing threat of child sex tourism and more children across the globe are going to be victimised in the future if immediate measures are not taken against it.

As “Sweetie” infiltrates the social media and raises a global alert, here is hoping that it will be successful in giving rise to further investigations on the matter worldwide.

Image Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons

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Sadichchha Pokharel

Editor (Asia: South)
Sadichchha is the South Asia section editor at The Global Panorama. She is an undergraduate student at Cardiff University School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies. Sadi is interested in global health and human rights issues in developing countries, particularly Africa and South Asia. She is into campaigning/social marketing and would like to make a career in the communications for development (C4D) sector. She enjoys reading, writing and travelling.