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.