Bangkok Post – Protect children from online abuse

Across Southeast Asia — from Manila to Bangkok to Phnom Penh — police are struggling to protect children from sexual exploitation and abuse, particularly online. Millions of images and videos of children are shared online every day, while authorities are increasingly at a loss as to what to do.

Behind these numbers are real girls and boys whose lives may never be the same again. Governments and law enforcement in countries across the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) can and must do more to stop this wave of abuse. Child sexual exploitation is increasing at an alarming rate across the region — we need urgent action now.

A gathering in Bali, Indonesia, this week offers an opportunity to do just that. From September 25 to 27, representatives from government, law enforcement, the private sector and others will gather for the third annual ASEAN-ICT Forum on Child Online Protection. Discussions should focus on new strategies to address the exponential rise in online child sexual exploitation and abuse (OCSEA) in Southeast Asia, and in particular the role of law enforcement. Police and other authorities should reaffirm their commitment to working more closely with NGOs, technology companies and community groups to present a united front against child sexual exploitation.

The Bali Summit follows a number of encouraging initiatives in the region. In 2019, for example, ASEAN member states adopted the Declaration on the Protection of Children from All Forms of Online Exploitation and Abuse. While we have seen some positive developments since then, much more can be done.

OCSEA is a particular problem in Asia, a region with the highest percentage of child internet users in the world. A major survey co-led by Ecpat, Unicef ​​and Interpol with support from SafeOnline in 2022 revealed the alarming scale of the problem. In the Philippines, 20% of children aged 12 to 17 said they had experienced online sexual abuse. The number was 11% in Cambodia, 9% in Thailand, 4% in Malaysia, 2.2% in Indonesia and 0.7% in Vietnam.

Perpetrators use the internet not only to share sexually explicit images of children, but also to target them for abuse and exploitation. More than half of all child victims said they were first approached online, primarily through social media or online gaming platforms. Too often, online abuse spills over into real life, as perpetrators try to get children to meet in person.

Despite the scale of the problem, law enforcement is struggling to keep up. They lack the tools and resources to tackle criminals in the digital sphere, including dedicated units and robust reporting systems. Officers also rarely receive specialized training in preventing and responding to child sexual abuse — this needs to be institutionalized from the academy level.

There are encouraging initiatives in the region that law enforcement can build on. In Indonesia, for example, officers are embedded in communities to raise awareness about crime prevention, while police in the Philippines are using social media channels for the same purpose. But much more needs to be done.

But tackling OCSEA isn’t just about funding and resourcing policing, it’s also about building trust with communities and ensuring that children feel safe enough to approach authority figures without fear of judgment. A big part of this is about changing mindsets and challenging harmful cultural taboos. We interviewed child victims and survivors in Southeast Asia who said they were reluctant to approach the police or other authorities to report crimes because they feared being blamed. More than a third of child victims/survivors said that such fears had prevented them from reporting crimes to anyone at all.

As a result, we see children feeling ashamed of what happened to them. One girl survivor said, “When I told (the police) about my problem, they blamed me, asked me why I would do something like that and why I behaved like that.” All survivors of OCSEA are victims. They deserve support and justice and should not be re-traumatized or made to feel like criminals. Law enforcement and judicial officials must treat all children who approach them with respect and always avoid victim blaming

We must also remember that OCSEA can affect any child and does not discriminate on the basis of age, gender or socio-economic boundaries. Our research shows that boys and girls are equally targeted and that there are equal numbers of victims in rural and urban areas. It also shows that the vast majority of perpetrators of online sexual crimes come from the circles of trust around children, rather than strangers on the dark web. ASEAN governments must adapt their strategies to these facts and ensure that services take into account the rights of all victims. Localised, community-based approaches must be available to engage children and their families.

We also encourage all ASEAN member states to establish OCSEA units and train and equip specialist officers with the technology, skills and resources to address the breadth of the problem and ensure that children receive justice and support, even in rural areas. Member states should work together to pool resources, share practices and coordinate cross-border investigations to make these units more effective.

This week’s summit in Bali is an important opportunity for ASEAN leaders to better protect children online. They must seize it.