Kerala: Countering Child Sexual Exploitation Team Crackdown On Online Sexual Predators

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) indicated a 95 per cent rise in online searches for child sexual abuse material. To crackdown on online sex offenders and pedophiles, Kerala Police's Countering Child Sexual Exploitation Team (CCSE), functioning under Cyberdome, is carrying out sustained digital analysis of virtual trends. In a recent raid, the team seized 429 devices and registered 370 cases besides making 28 arrests. Talking to NDTV, Manoj Abraham, Additional Director General of Police, Kerala said,

We do the patrolling of the dark and all the crimes that happen online and we found that it was almost a 300 per cent increase. The increase was more on the online platform than physical. Pedophiles found it easy to lure the children during this period and a lot of videos of children were traded during this period on the online platform.

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Kailash Satyarthi Children's Foundation's partner organisation India Child Protection Fund (ICPF) released a report on child sexual abuse material (CSAM) in India in April 2020 which revealed that demand for child pornography averaged 5 million per month, in 100 cities, and only on the public web. Demand for CSAM was present across age groups. The vast majority of individuals were interested in generic CSAM content involving ‘school girl sex'. There was a 200 per cent increase in demand for violent content involving children.

Also Read: 6-year-old Sexually Abused, Brutally Injured In Madhya Pradesh's Damoh

ICPF is providing technical support and resources to Kerala Police's CCSE Unit to strengthen their investigative tools to protect children from abuse. Talking about the support, Sundar Krishnan, Director (Technology), Kailash Satyarthi Children's Foundation said,

We are trying to provide them with digital investigative technological tools which are like hardware and software and providing training from international experts. The impact is pretty much there and hopefully, when trial happens, we expect a lot of convictions as well.

Also Read: 16-year-old From Bihar, Raped While Out To Fetch Water, Awaits Justice

The alarming rise in online child sexual abuse indicates millions of pedophiles, child rapists and child pornography addicts have migrated online, making the internet extremely unsafe for children. To protect children from the threats lurking online, parents need to spend more time with children and encourage healthy online behavior and put in tech tools if required. As per law, viewing, distributing or storing of any child pornographic content is a criminal offence and can lead to 5-year imprisonment and up to Rs 10 lakh fine.

Also Read: Sexual Harassment Reports Prompt Tamil Nadu Government To Issue Guidelines For All Schools On Students' Safety

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