The Global Threat Assessment report 2021

The Global Threat Assessment report 2021

Subject – Governance

Context – Pandemic fuelled rise in child sexual abuse online: report

Concept –

• The Global Threat Assessment report 2021, by WeProtect Global Alliance, launched on Tuesday, said COVID-19 had contributed to a significant spike in child sexual exploitation and abuse online.
• WeProtect Global Alliance is a global movement of more than 200 governments, private sector companies and civil society organisations working together to transform the global response to child sexual exploitation and abuse online.
• The findings show that in the past two years, the reporting of child sexual exploitation and online abuse has reached its highest level. “COVID¬19 created a ‘perfect storm’ of conditions that fuelled a rise in child sexual exploitation and abuse across the globe,” it stated.
• The rise in child ‘self-generated’ sexual material is another trend that challenges the existing response, with the Internet Watch Foundation observing a 77% increase in child ‘self-generated’ sexual material from 2019 to 2020.
• During the pandemic, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) indicated 106% increase in reports of suspected child sexual exploitation to its global CyberTipline. During the lockdown, there was a 95% rise in searches for child sexual abuse material, the NCMEC reported.
• The report calls for prioritising prevention activities against abuse, creating safe online environments for children, besides calling on all with a role to protect children to work together to improve the response.