ROLE OF TEACHER IN CONSCIENTISING CHILD ABUSE OVER INTERNET

Child abuse is a situation when a parent or a caregiver, by some of their action or non-action, harms the child. Child abuse can be of various types- physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual type of child abuse. It is a serious issue which, if left unattended, would leave a long-term trauma to the kid, or even cause death of the child. It is one of the most uncomfortable and cumbersome topics to talk about because it is surrounded by guilt and shame and so on, but us avoiding that issue does not help those kids in need out there who need support.

The past few decades have seen tremendous change in terms of development and technologies in our society. Many new discoveries and invention took place in the society, one of which was the internet. With the help of internet everyone’s life started to change. People could connect with people across the globe, could search literally anything that comes up in their mind, and many more stuffs. But with this advancement in the society few disadvantages also emerged. Some people started to misuse the internet, they started to commit crime and harm others.

As technology develops, the internet and its range of content services can be accessed by children, young people and adults through various devices including mobile phones, tablets, text messaging and mobile camera Smart Phones as well as computers and game consoles. Consequently, the Internet has become a significant tool in exposing children to possible risks and dangers including the distribution of indecent/pseudo photographs and video clips of children and young people. Internet is a place where children can be easily used. It is the main source for maltreatment and sexual abuse of children. It offers easy and private access to children which readily facilitate sexual exploitation of children.

CHILD ABUSE OVER THE NET

                    Child abuse defined by WHO “constitutes all forms of physical and/or emotional ill-treatment, sexual abuse, neglect or negligent treatment or commercial or other exploitation, resulting in actual or potential harm to the child’s health, survival, development or dignity in the context of a relationship of responsibility, trust or power.’’

Online (cyber) child sexual abuse is the engagement of a child in sexual activities via Internet facilities with a child who, according to the relevant provisions of national law, has not reached the legal age for sexual activities

Online abuse is any type of abuse that happens on the web, whether through social networks, playing online games or using mobile phones. Children and young people may experience cyber bullying, grooming, sexual abuse, sexual exploitation or emotional abuse.

Children can be at risk of online abuse from people they know, as well as from strangers. Online abuse may be part of abuse that is taking place in the real world (for example bullying or grooming). Or it may be that the abuse only happens online (for example persuading children to take part in sexual activity online). Children can feel like there is no escape from online abuse – abusers can contact them at any time of the day or night, the abuse can come into safe places like their bedrooms, and images and videos can be stored and shared with other people.

Child abuse over net

·Child sexual exploitation, blackmailing children forcing them to use webcam

·Children's exposure to inappropriate violent, sexually explicit or offensive material

·Use of the Internet by paedophiles (a person sexually attracted to children) to legitimize, reinforce, and facilitate their sexual activities

·Commercial exploitation of children

·Distributing   abusive   images   of   children. Use   internet to collect and trade child pornography.

·Grooming a child for later abuse using teen chat rooms, bulletin boards and online communities where the abuser befriends the child to gain trust. The act of grooming aims to desensitise the young person to sexual activities which may become increasingly abusive and to feed the groomer’s fantasies of introducing a young person to this material

·Prostituting a child for later abuse either by the perpetrator or by other abusers

·Engaging children in cyber-sex scenarios by abusers

·Children being sold online for live sexual abuse online – the perpetrator informs his online ‘peers’ that he intends to abuse a child on a set date and time and these ‘peers’ can watch   this abuse occurring through a webcam.

·Sexual predators contacting children with false identity and pampering and prompting children to commit abusive acts by strangers

·Arousing children’s sexual fantasies.

TYPES OF CHILD ABUSE ON INTERNET

CHILD SEXUAL EXPLOITATION

Online (cyber) child sexual abuse is the engagement of a child in sexual activities via Internet facilities with a child who, according to the relevant provisions of national law, has not reached the legal age for sexual activities

Sexual exploitation against children is increasing at an alarming rate. With the worldwide usage of internet, it is easier for children to get access to the sexual content. This also makes it easier for the perpetrators who are trying to find children whom they can coerce into doing acts that would be sexually abusive in nature. The internet creates a simple and quick platform for these perpetrators to communicate to the children and helps them to remain anonymous or helps them to make fake identifications.

The perpetrator can lurk around the chat rooms and other online platforms to gather information of the victim. Once he has sufficient information, he would contact the victim via private chatroom and arrange a real-life meeting so that he could engage in sexual activities with the victim. In some situations, an adult may sometimes pose as a child in order to make initial contact – enticing the victim into abusive relationships or into making pornographic images for distribution or to perform sexual acts for a webcam. An indecent image of a child refers to any images (still or moving) of children apparently under 18 years of age, involved in sexual activity or posed to be sexually provocative. Usually, the perpetrator chooses their victim who have a particular characteristic. These children are normally called the ‘risk at’ children. They are children who have some problem with getting attention from their families, friends, or love partners, mistreated or emotionally disturbed children, children with big respect to adult status, children from single parent or children with low self-esteem.

PAEDOPHILES ACTIVITIES

Paedophiles are people who have perversion towards children. Men and women both can do paedophile activities towards children between age group of 3-18. Generally, studies have shown most paedophiles are of the age group 30. Online platforms are the best place for them to find their prey and fulfil their lust for children for the purpose of sexual activities. These platforms help them to create group where other paedophiles encourage, give advises, and provide information of getting materials to other paedophiles.

This increase in paedophile activities have in turn increased the number of child pornography. Child pornography is a type of pornography where children are made to do sexual activities with some adult. Most of the times, the face of the children is morphed and is shown as smiling and laughing. This is done to show that the children have given their consent for the same.  There are an estimated 14 million sites which provide child pornography content online. 

EXPOSURE TO INAPPROPRIATE MATERIALS

Children especially between ages 11-17 are unintentionally exposed to inappropriate materials which included sexual content, disgusting and disturbing violent contents. Most inappropriate material children come across are the sexual material. Children get easy excess to pornography site. As stated, before many of the children come across these sexual contents unintentionally.

Internet chat rooms, social networking sites, gaming sites, instant messaging services, apps, discussion forums and bulletin boards can all be used as a means of contacting children with a view to grooming them for inappropriate or abusive relationships. Grooming is where a person establishes contact with the child and gains their trust and confidence in order to sexually abuse them. In addition to the sexual contents, they may come across some violent content as well. The violent contents may involve documentary or films related drugs, abuse of various kinds or warship and weapons. Similarly, concerns have been raised about the violence against women and depicts that women are inferior to men.

OTHER FORMS OF CHILD ABUSE

There are many portals in internet through which child abuse can be done. Other than the types discussed above there are many other potential ways through which perpetrators can abuse children via the internet. One of them is promotion of child sexual tourism. This practice has been more seen in Asian countries.

Online harassment is another form of online child abuse. Young people must face bullying, emotional traumas, humiliations by other users of the platforms. These kind of experience makes a child go through anxiety and traumas throughout their life if they are not given proper treatment and counselling.

 

Morphing – Editing the original picture by an unauthorized users or false identity. It is the process of changing smoothly from one image to another by small gradual steps using computer animation techniques. It is a special effect in motion pictures or animations that changes one image into another.

Pornography (cyber-sex) – It is any picture or movie that is created to make people get sexually excited.

ROLE OF TEACHERS

As educators, it is our responsibility to teach students how to use digital media in respectful and safe ways. This includes helping kids learn how to identify, respond to, and to prevent online child abuse. Firstly, a teacher must be aware of their student's emotional state. Teachers must pay attention to any sudden changes in their students' behaviour like whether they seem depressed, distracted or if they are being detached from peer groups etc. We should be able to directly enquire about what's going on and to reach out to their support networks including parents or caregivers, the school counsellor, a coach, or other teachers.

This can be done in a sequential manner given below,

Identifying the "At risk" children

·       Children who have experienced prior maltreatment

·       Emotionally immature children with learning or social difficulties

·       Children with problems in peer friendships

·       Children who will co-operate for a desired reward

·       Children from single parent families

·       Children with strong respect for adult status

·       Love or attention deprived children

Behavioural clues - Behavioural differences of the child may be: -

·       Be aggressive or oppositional

·       Act out, displaying aggressive or disruptive behaviour

·       Be destructive to self or others

·       Be unable to form good peer relationships

·       Cheat, steal, or lie

·       Show fearlessness or extreme risk taking

·       Show disinterest in studies

Rehabilitate the child

·       School Activities and Programs Supporting the Maltreated Child

·       Encourage the child to form friends and interact with society

·       Counselling

·       Proper sex education and understanding of society

·       Love and attention to children

·       Make students feel free to discuss their problems

·       Convince students about the negative use of internet

The few ways teachers can approach this problem inside the classroom

1.    Promote a positive and safe classroom culture

Whether or not you have technology in the classroom, setting norms of respectful communication sends a message to your students about what is and is not acceptable. Find ways to demonstrate that your classroom is a safe, emotionally caring environment. Provide resources in the classroom to help students identify, respond to, and avoid abuse. This could be tips on how to respond to such issues if they come across it accidently.

2.    Embrace teachable "dig cit" moments

 Step up when you encounter a teachable moment related to child abuse or respectful online communication. Encourage students to pay attention to "red flag moments" -- when something happens on digital media that makes them feel uncomfortable, worried, sad, or anxious. Explain to students the ways they can and should respond if they witness abuse among peers: support the victim of the abuse (be an ally); try to stop the peer from engaging (be an upstander); and/or tell a trusted adult (report it).

3.    Incorporate lessons on exploitation of children through internet into your existing curriculum. 

Find connections to the content you are already teaching and make time to address child abuse directly. From setting norms of online communication to using historical examples of online child abuse like South Korea's 'Nth room' case and 'The Bois Locker room' case in India.

Teachers can work with student's families to identify and prevent online child abuse

The first step is to communicate with your students' families about your findings and explain the crisis the child is going through. When parents are informed and on board, they are more likely to panic but teachers must make special care to urge the parents to stay calm and do not raise their voice or blame the children. Since families often look to schools for guidance on dealing such issues, we can offer them the latest advice and resources on the topic.

The chances of children using the internet have increased even more. With the increase in usage of internet, the chances of children falling prey to online abuse would also increase. This is the time when the parents should be vigilant and look after the kids. They should also remind that their children are special and well loved. Keeping an eye on their children while they use internet would be a good practice to start with but the parents should also remember that they should not invade the privacy of their child.

 Not only the parents but governments should also up their game as the number of online child abuse have been rising at an alarming rate. India has an act called POCSO which have provisions related to children sexual abuse. But the government should amend the act and add provisions related to internet child abuse. On December 2019, the legislation has raised a motion for adding the provisions related to online abuse for the act. If the said provisions are passed and included in the act, then the chances of lowering the crime rates related to this would be high.