*Trigger warning
With the unfolding of the past few months we have been at home more, isolated, and out of our work and school routines. Unfortunately, at times, kids were put on the back burner by their parents. Parents were trying to get their own expected work hours done from home while getting dinner on the table, managing shared wifi, navigating potential financial hits from layoffs or decreased hours, and not to mention keep their family healthy and safe during a worldwide pandemic.
COVID-19 Increasing Child Exploitation
The effects of COVID-19 and stay at home orders created an intense peak in the online exploitation of our kids. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) reported a fourfold increase since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In April of 2019, NCMEC reported roughly 1 million reports to their Cybertipline. For April 2020, they reported over 4 million reports of child online exploitation.
In addition to the NCMEC reports, a recent article conducted by NBC news shares that social media, and image and video platforms, have been inundated with child sexual exploitation content. Within the NBC findings, Brian Herrick of the FBI’s Violent Crimes Against Children and Human Trafficking Section states the exploitive “activity is peaking on the platforms where it takes place, very similar to how it peaks around holiday times when people are off work.”
Our stark reality is that more time at home is increasing the demand for exploitive material. Not only is the demand up for child exploitation, but on many platforms where content is shared, monitoring has lessened due to stay at home orders. Employees that would usually be monitoring sites have less access to company security software detecting harmful child sexual exploitation.
Demand for Child Pornography
UN and UNICEF reports collectively indicate the COVID-19 effects on children and youth are a global issue, not just something we are facing here in the United States. U.S. travel restrictions due to the pandemic have spawned new ways to sexually exploit and abuse children, such as attempts to establish “delivery” or “drive-thru” services. There has also been a spike in people trying to access illegal websites featuring child pornography.
“Producing and accessing child sexual abuse material and live-stream child sexual abuse online has now become an easy alternative to groom and lure children into sexual activities and to trade images in online communities,” said Ms. Singhateh.
UNICEF is calling all governments and industries to join together with the goal of keeping children safe online. They are doing this by helping teachers and parents instruct children to use the internet safely and to bring awareness and education initiatives into the schools.
Prevention Starts with You | Next Steps
Freedom 4/24 is taking active steps to educate and prevent youth exploitation through our awareness and education efforts.
1) Protect the children entrusted to you:
Discuss internet safety and develop an online safety plan
Supervise child's use of the internet
Review games and apps before they’re downloaded
Use parent controls and privacy/location settings on electronic devices
Tell children to not share any private information, photos of videos of themselves
Talk to your children about physical boundaries and body safety
Be alert to any signs of abuse
Encourage your child to come to you if they see any inappropriate or sexual content online
Report IMMEDIATELY any online enticement or exploitation of a child by calling 911, or contacting the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) at 1800-843-5678 or https://report.cybertip.org/
