Brutal online sex abuse of children on the rise

In More children becoming victims of ‘brutal’ online sex abuse, Kieran Guilbert of the Thomson Reuters Foundation writes that ‘The global spread of cheap, high-speed internet and the rise in mobile phone ownership is fuelling the growth of cybersex trafficking, which has become a “brutal form of modern-day slavery”’, citing a report by Britain-led WeProtect. According to UNICEF, some 1.8 million children are brought into sex traffic each year. The WePROTECT Global Threat Assessment 2018 – Working together to end the sexual exploitation of children online concludes that ‘Technology is enabling offender communities to attain unprecedented levels of organisation, creating new and persistent threats’.