KUCHING: During the Covid-19 pandemic, internet has become an important tool for people to get connected, hold meetings, events and learning online, but another threat on the rise is online predators targeting children.
Online predators who commit child sexual abuse are using every opportunity they can to prey on children during this global pandemic. More children are given their own devices for e-learning especially with the school requiring them to study online, but how safe are they on the internet?
Parents protect their children from harm outside the house, but what about at home when they go online? Thus, as trusted adults, parents play a very important role in preventing online child sexual abuse incidents.
In a webinar entitled ‘Child Online Safety and Protection (COSP)’ organised by Serba Dinamik Group Berhad (SDGB) in collaboration with eSafeKids Australia and Cyber8Lab last Tuesday, eSafeKids Australia founder Kayelene Kerr shared on the topics regarding online grooming and how parents can communicate effectively with their children to prevent them for being victims of online child sexual abuse.
The talk was moderated by senior vice president for cybersecurity at SDGB, Assoc Prof Col (R) Datuk Dr Husin Jazri.
“During the Covid-19 period, there was an increase in the number of children getting online. They were not only spending their leisure time online but also learning online.
“But what we saw was a decrease in supervision as well. This could be due to parents working and away from home, and children are at home doing their school learning,” said Kayelene.
Kayelene, who has 25 years’ experience of study in law enforcement, investigating sexual crimes, including technology-facilitated crimes said there was also a significant increase in child sexual abuse and exploitation during the pandemic period.
“The National Council for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) in America saw 106 percent increase in reports of child exploitation and sexual abuse during the Covid-19 period. This is a significant increase because for last year, the council received 900,000 reports of child exploitation and sexual abuse.
“In this most recent period, of which a big part was during the Covid-19 period, the number skyrocketed to over two million reports received about child exploitation and sexual abuse,” she said.
She added that the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (ACCCE) also reported a 122 percent increase in reports of child exploitation and sexual abuse from April to June this year.
“The law enforcement around the world reported that online child sex offences on the dark web were more than doubled. This means that there was more chatter between online predators talking about how they can prey on children online,” she said.
She said that based on information from global law enforcement, it was estimated that there were 750,000 active online predators at any one time using the Internet.
“This is a real issue at any time of the year, especially during this Covid-19 period where we have large number of children who are at home, often without parental control or filtering. Therefore, parents must be aware of this,” she stressed.
In the case of Malaysia, Kayelene said based on available data, a large number of children in primary schools have been approached by someone online that they do not know and have been asked to send photos and videos.
“In 2015, one in 10 Malaysian children had been asked to send photos and videos of the private parts of their body.
“In the same year, there was a 300 percent increase in child sexual abuse and exploitation,” she said.
Understanding online grooming
Online grooming is defined as when a person makes online contact with a child or young person through all kinds of technologies including the games that children play with the intention of establishing a relationship with the child to enable their sexual abuse.
Majority of online groomers are men, but there are also cases where such predators are females.
Kayelene said when predators engage with a child online, often times they would disguise themselves other than who they actually are or for male predators they would pretend to be the opposite sex.
“Most grooming of children will begin in a public setting, then the children will be taken from that public setting into that private space such as messaging services that allows privacy, which is why it is very important for parents to speak with their children on who they can communicate with online.
“If someone wants to connect with the child in a private way using an app, that should ring alarm bells,” she said.
She said once the predators have the opportunity to connect with the child in a private setting, very quickly the child will be asked to take photos and videos of the private parts of their body.
“In some cases, predators will send the children pornography or child sexual abuse material to desensitise the child or normalise what it is they are asking for,” she said.
She said in the real world when offenders groom children, about 96 percent of the time the child knows the person who is grooming them – someone the child loves or trust.
“However, in the online environment the child and the family will not know the person who is grooming the child,” she said.
Grooming behaviours:
- Seek out and target vulnerable children or young people
Gain the trust of the child - Fill a need of the child with attention, affection, praise or giving gifts
- Maintain power and control by using secrecy, blame, shame, guilt, lies, bribes, blackmail, tricks and threats to manipulate the child or person into silence
Reasons predators prey on children online:
- To obtain child sexual abuse material in the form of photos or videos
- To meet the child in the real world
- Sextortion, to extort the child for monetary gain
Signs to look for when a child is being groomed online:
- Child starts to get secretive
- Cannot leave their devices
- Child starts to become withdrawn and upset
Reducing the risk of online child sexual abuse
Not only law enforcements play a part in curbing child sexual abuse online, but parents and educators too are responsible to teach the child and equip them with the right skills and strategies when encountering predators.
Kayelene said one way to minimise the harm on children is to keep technology out of the bedroom particularly at night.
“This is because online grooming and those who prey on children in an online environment, the vast majority of online grooming occurs overnight,” she said, adding that reducing screen time online will reduce risk of the child being victims.
She stressed it was important for parents to participate in their child’s online lives.
“Firstly, have a positive conservation with the child about the benefits of technology and the internet. Tell the child if they ever see, hear, send or show photos of videos that they need to ask it is important that the child speaks about it.
“Then slowly go into more specifics where we can let our kids know if they see, hear, send or show any photos of videos that make them feel scared or upset, uncomfortable, anxious, embarrassed or unsafe and tell the child it is important that they speak about it,” she said.
She said the main reasons children don’t speak to adults when in unsafe situations online is because children are scared they are going to get into trouble, afraid that their devices will be confiscated and the content sent made them feel embarrassed and uncomfortable to talk about.
“The way that we can debunk this is to tell the child that we as parents are going to support them and will try their best not to tell them off or take away their devices, but will help them in any situation they are facing,” she said.
She added it was important to use the appropriate language when talking about private parts of the body.
“With younger children, it is not advisable to use the language such as child sexual abuse material, but more child friendly language by referring it to private photos or videos and they are not allowed to take or send theirs or someone else private parts to anyone else.
“Do not leave this kind of conversation too late, ideally the right time to talk about online grooming is when the child is in primary school, but by using appropriate or tricky words,” she pointed out.
She added it was very important for parents to talk about safe and unsafe secrets, because many child abuse and online grooming are shrouded in secrecy where children are told to keep unsafe secrets.
“Remind the child to think and pause before they post anything online, because all the words, photos and videos can be shared, copied, manipulated and downloaded and anyone would be able to see those contents,” she said.
Safe secrets that can be kept:
- Usually linked with feelings or happiness or excitement
- Usually other people would know the secret, only keeping the secret from one person and not everyone
- Secrets that are kept for a short period of time
- No one is getting hurt or feeling hurt on the inside or outside of their body
Unsafe secrets that cannot be kept:
- Having feelings of fear, sadness, confusion, embarrassment, guilt, shame
- The child getting warning signs
- To keep the secret from everyone
- Asked to keep the secret for a long time and not allowed to tell anyone
- Threatening the child that something bad will happen to them or someone else
- Sometimes may be linked with lies, bribes, guilt and blackmail
Kayelene said supporting children and young people and vulnerable adults in the online space is by participating in their online world, supervising them, providing education not only in school but also at home, have on-going conversation from young until the child matures.
“The online space is a very challenging place to work on. There are many organisations including law enforcements that work collaboratively to detect and disrupt organised predators online.
“Law enforcements are very active in this online space, the reality is there are not enough law enforcements or organisations in the world to keep up with the shared volume of work. Therefore, this is where parents and educators cannot rely on law enforcement alone and have an important part to play as trusted adults by educating the child to reduce harm,” she said.
She said unfortunately online crimes cannot be eliminated once and for all, but it can be reduced by creating awareness through talks, ongoing conversations and education for the child.
Where to report if you see child abuse material online
-In Malaysia: Internet Watch Foundation Malaysia Reporting Portal at https://report.iwf.org.uk/my_en/
-In Australia: eSafety Commissioner at https://www.esafety.gov.au/report
Also, to know more about eSafeKids Australia, visit https://www.esafekids.com.au/ and to read about cyber security related issues visit Seba Dinamik’s e-Security and Privacy Channel (ESPC) at https://www.espc2go.com/.
