By Shaurya Khatri
Kathmandu, Feb. 10: Nepal along with 170 other nations observed the Safer Internet Day on Tuesday with a theme, “Together for a better Internet,” in an attempt to raise awareness on online risks for children and young adults.
With an increasing number of children spending extended periods of time online to participate in remote learning and to socialise amidst the pandemic, safe online practice has become a pressing issue now more than ever.
According to Digital Nepal Framework 2019, Nepal has made a rapid success in digital adoption, with mobile penetration exceeding 100 per cent and Internet penetration reaching over 63 per cent.
Cell phones and the internet are readily available to children, mostly in sprawling urban districts such as Kathmandu. Children aged above eight years are capable of making and uploading TikTok videos with many having active social media presence.
In Nepal, child care workers warn that a growing trend of children being groomed virtually by sexual predators has led to a rise in the cases of sexual abuse and exploitation since the beginning of the pandemic.
A report published on February 5 by CWIN Nepal, provides some revealing and deeply troubling facts concerning children’s activity on social media and online child sexual exploitation (OCSE). The study was conducted among 1,714 respondents aged between nine and 19 years from all the seven provinces.
“We have found that children today are far more susceptible to cyber bullying and OCSE with an increasing access to the internet,” said Sumnima Tuladhar, Executive Director, CWIN-Nepal, talking about the findings of the research report.
“Since the lockdown, the amount of time spent on social media has gone up significantly,” said Tuladhar. As per the research, during normal weekdays and weekends, about four to 11 per cent of people used the internet for over eight hours a day. Since the lockdown, 26 per cent started using the internet for over eight hours. Likewise, 53 per cent spend anywhere between three to five hours while the rest 21 per cent use it for less than an hour.
Following this uptick in virtual presence, the CWIN child support hotline 1098 logged 69,212 reports in 2020, compared to 58,880 the previous year, as per the data made available by Amrit Ratna Shakya of CWIN. Among the total number of calls, 137 callers reported sexual abuse, while 23 others reported facing online abuse.
Moreover, of the total number of respondents in the CWIN study, 11 per cent reported facing online sexual exploitation during the lockdown. Child right workers such as Tuladhar claimed that these numbers were only the tip of the iceberg.
“Most instances of online sexual abuse and exploitation rarely come out in the open. They are buried and forgotten to either protect the family name or protect young girls and boys from the brunt of social scrutiny and police procedure,” added Tuladhar.
Given the hidden nature of such exploitation, The Economist’s initiative, aptly named Out of the Shadow Index, provides a compelling picture of Nepal’s online child sexual exploitation and abuse. In the Index, Nepal ranked 39 out of 60 countries measured.
Although the index reports Nepal as having an adequately stable environment, ECPAT Luxembourg, the first organisation to work against online child sexual abuse in Nepal, believes that the country’s uncoordinated policy frameworks, loopholes in crimes, and unrecorded online sexual abuse provide a false sense of safety.
In CWIN’s latest study, researchers conducted focus group discussions and key informant interviews to unearth some agitating instances of online abuse and subsequent mental trauma. More often than not, the perpetrators of online abuse are the best friends, boyfriends, and relatives. “Boyfriend, girlfriend, peers, best friends were found to be the persons forcing the respondents to forward nude images, obscene audios and videos,” informed Tuladhar.
Dubbed as revenge porn, disgruntled lovers threaten their former partners with posting their nude images online.
Contrary to popular belief, young boys have been found more susceptible to sexual exploitation than females. The study reveals that 63.36 per cent of males and 34.35 per cent of females were asked to pose live in front of the camera naked. The reason, as per child right expert Tuladhar, is because boys are more privileged in Nepali society and thus have better access to mobile phone and technology.
In addition, the need to make more friends, amass more likes in social media has become a major cause for increasing friend lists and followers, thereby making it easy for strangers and sexual predators. Out of the 1,714 respondents, 457 agreed to meeting strangers online via video chat, among whom 163 were manipulated to meet these online strangers or facebook friends in person. One hundred and fifty four out of these 163 faced some kind of sexual exploitation at the hands of strangers met online.
Despite recent data suggesting children’s vulnerability to online sexual exploitation, relevant legislation on the topic is lacking, as per the over the shadow index. Aside from older clauses prohibiting “producing or selling obscene books, pamphlets”, the Penal Code doesn’t have specific provisions defining and criminalising child sexual abuse material or any other form of online child sexual exploitation. Furthermore, Nepal does not impose any legal requirement on Internet Service Providers to report child sexual abuse materials.
Moreover, cyber bullying has been notorious for defaming someone’s public image online. As per the CWIN report’s finding, name calling is the number one form of cyber bullying followed by circulation of non-consensual dissemination of intimate images (NCII).
The study’s key informant interviews revealed that children have learnt to manipulate pictures using Photoshop by merging it with a nude picture and sharing it among friends. “Such cases have even resulted in suicides and attempted suicides by victims,” informed Tuladhar.
Parents, guardians, children and teachers should be aware that they could report such incidences at helpline 1098 or the cyber bureau.
Child abuse experts advise young children against sending nudes to anybody, be it their lover, their friends or relatives. No one can be trusted online, cautions Tuladhar.