Abusers Are Taking Advantage of the Pandemic
As children’s lives shifted from in-person to online, child abusers “have found a tempting opportunity to access a broader group of potential victims,” reports Europol, the European Union’s law enforcement agency. “The COVID-19 crisis has resulted in a surge in online distribution of child sexual abuse material, which was already at high levels prior to the pandemic,” says Europol Executive Director Catherine De Bolle. “The harm resulting from being a victim of this crime is severe, and every time a picture or video is shared, this results in repeat victimization. The impact of this crime area can hardly be overstated, and an effective response is of utmost importance.”
The sharing of exploitative material has risen globally, according to Europol, which cites livestreaming, webcams, and peer-to-peer networks as factors in criminal activity among the vulnerable youth population. Other experts warn that child predators have been showing up on homework and tutoring sites, social media platforms, and dating sites for teenagers.
Gurbir Grewal, New Jersey’s state attorney general, says apps and video games have increasingly become “prime hunting ground” for sexual predators. Officials in that state began a sting operation to catch online predators in March, as COVD-19 took hold, which Grewal calls “no coincidence.” During a five-month period from March to July 2020, a New Jersey internet crimes task force received 3,600 tips, a threefold increase from the same period last year. A jump also occurred in 7- to 9-year-olds who are “creating sexually explicit videos after being groomed by online predators.”
Although livestreaming sites such as Zoom have made efforts to increase security features, the phenomenon known as Zomb-bombing continues to occur, with intruders hijacking the screen and often sharing inappropriate messages with viewers.