Online sexual exploitation of children is a growing trend, experts say
Children as young as 10 are engaging in a really disturbing activity on their phones and a lot of times their parents have no clue.
Australian children have been found to be selling sexualised images of themselves to strangers online once they realise there is a market and money to be made.
A landmark report released earlier this week into child sexual abuse from the University of NSW (UNSW) and Jesuit Social Services found one-in-six Australian men reported sexual feelings towards children (15.1 per cent) and one-in-10 had actually sexually offended against children. Two thirds of this offending, the report found, occurred online.
But buried in the report was another growing area of concern. Australian children are selling sexualised images of themselves online and the age that some are starting is terrifyingly young.
Georgia Naldrett, the manager of Stop it Now! Australia, and a co-author on the report, said there has been a steady increase in this type of behaviour.
She said the practice was particularly a problem with vulnerable kids.
“These kids can be coerced into this type of behaviour, with money as a motivator,” she said, noting children as young as 10 were at risk.
“We know technology is a standard part of children’s lives at a very young age and parents don’t necessarily know the risk” she said.
“We need to remind ourselves the responsibility always lies with the adults around those individuals, especially the adult that is paying for that content.
“We need to work with those men to disrupt the production and purchase of this content and prevent them from reoffending, and therefore, harming children.”
Ms Naldrett said the issue is occurring on mainstream applications (OnlyFans and so forth) and one to one such as social media sites like Facebook.
Do you know more? – carla.mascarenhas@news.com.au
Billion dollar industry
The issue first hit the headlines in a 2005 article in theNew York Times on Justin Berry, an American teen who was molested by people he had met online and then went on to run a pornographic website for five years, featuring images of himself, all while his mother thought he was doing his homework.
Dr Sharon Cooper, a paediatrician at the University of North Carolina told the New York Times that internet technologies have the capacity to drive a wedge between children and their families.
“Online predators befriend adolescents,” she said.
“They become closer to them than some family members are.”
Dr Cooper compared the new forms of online exploitation, which involve constant surveillance of subjects, to security cameras in convenience stores.
“We’re seeing real-time sexual exploitation of children,” she said.
Not an isolated incident
Researchers say the Berry story isn’t an isolated incident.
One in five children who are frequent internet users report unsolicited sexual advances from strangers.
Genevieve Bloxsom, a PhD candidate and researcher officer at the University of Melbourne, described it as an “emerging trend” and the issue is long overdue for attention.
“Victim blaming has been working in this space, children have been made to be partially responsible in their own exploitation,” she said.
“There needs to be less victim blaming and more focus on the perpetrator and their actions.”
As long as the child is receiving money for the images, there is a perpetrator involved, she added.
Landmark report
The landmark report into child sexual abuse has made for sobering reading – suggesting urgent action is needed to address the problem.
The report shattered entrenched stereotypes around offenders, too.
It found men more likely to offend against children were married, working with children, and earning higher incomes.
They also exhibited anxiety, depression and binge-drinking behaviours.
The anonymous survey featured 1945 Australian men aged between 18 to over 65.
Lead author Associate Professor Michael Salter from UNSW told news.com.au it affirmed what countless survivors have said, “that the men who abused them were well-connected and relatively wealthy, and whose behaviour is secretive and easily overlooked”.
Prof Salter hoped the report would be a “catalyst for change” by highlighting the broader “social and technological pattern that enable abuse”, adding there were “multiple points of leverage” for governments to address, but it was a question of political will.
Originally published as Online sexual exploitation of children is a growing trend, experts say
