Religious organizations asked to join the fight against online child sexual exploitation

Faith-based organizations are asked to join the fight against online child sexual exploitation. Unicef has provided new guidelines to help religious leaders use their moral authority in order to protect children.

Faith-based organizations and religious leaders are asked to join the fight against online child sexual exploitation. Unicef argues that they are in a unique position of using their moral authority in order to stop the staggering expansion of child sexual abuse materials online.

Together with ECPAT International and Religions for Peace, Unicef published new guidelines that will help religious organizations by offering them the tools they need to mobilize, influence thinking, generate debate and set standards. According to ECPAT, religious organizations can have a larger impact and a more widespread influence on communities the world over.

“If the world is to eliminate online sexual exploitation of children, the world’s most influential bodies must play their part. And few – if any – have more influence than religious communities,” said Dorothy Rozga, Executive Director of ECPAT International, speaking at the launch of the Guide at the 5th Forum of the Global Network of Religions for Children. “They are the largest and most inter-connected social organisations in existence. With most of the world’s population, around five billion people, belonging to religious communities, their potential to spearhead the fight against this appalling crime is immense,” said Rozga.

The guidelines provide the perspectives of different religions on child protection as well as the following step-by-step tips to help religious leaders and communities take action, seek justice and protect children.

One particular case in which religious organizations could play a major role is in the creation of safe spaces and child-friendly environments. All places of worship and religious institutions can offer safety, help and support for children and adolescents, including those who are victims of violence.

Religious leaders can use their influence in order to raise awareness about the phenomenon and also ask community members to report any cases of exploitation and abuse.

“Children are vulnerable to sexual exploitation online everywhere. We urge faith groups to use this guide to catalyze their deepest moral and spiritual capacities to ensure that the crime of sexual abuse of children is prevented. The world’s diverse religious communities must become allies in addressing this scandal everywhere–in local communities, on the national level and across regions,” said Dr. William Vendley, Secretary General of Religions for Peace.

Unicef appeals to faith-based groups as online child sexual exploitation is a global phenomenon, affecting both girls and boys, victims that become too scared to report abuse and end up suffering in silence. Religious leaders can become the promoters of safe spaces in which these forms of exploitation do not go unreported.

With the information and communications technologies and the internet, Unicef warns that children are more exposed to new and evolving forms of sexual exploitation, as seen in a staggering expansion of child sexual abuse materials online. Practices such as ‘sexting’, the self-production and sharing of sexual messages or images, also place children at risk of sexual abuse and exploitation.

While the precise number of children who are victims of online child sexual exploitation is unknown, according to the International Association of Internet Hotlines, the number of webpages containing child sexual abuse materials increased by 147 percent from 2012 to 2014, with girls and children 10 years old or younger portrayed in 80 percent of these materials.

Several countries have taken steps in order to promote reporting and taking down of such materials that have been uploaded on the internet. In the U.K., for example, the Internet Watch Foundation, monitoring images and videos on the internet, announced in its 2016 report that all the content that was reported was taken down in maximum two days and most companies, 65%, reacted to the notices in 120 minutes or less.

But the IWF warned about the spread of the phenomenon as its report also illustrated that every nine minutes a webpage shows a child being exploited and more and more teenagers are put at risk due to webcams.