Children at risk of sexual misbehaviour through internet: Study

KATHMANDU: Children were increasingly at risk of sexual abuse through the internet, a study showed.

In a programme organized to unveil the findings of a study conducted by Bal Awaj, an organization based in Lalitpur, it was found that children below 18 years were sexually abused through the Internet.

The study conducted among 514 children in Koshi and Bagmati States revealed that children were asked for obscene pictures by known and strangers in the internet and their pictures would be morphed to defame them.

In the study, 73 per cent of children admitted that they accessed the internet through Wi-Fi while 14 per cent from mobile data and 13 per cent from both sources, said Krishna Kumar Thapa, executive director of Bal Awaj.

Actions such as asking for obscene photos from children and sending insensitive messages among others by abusing the internet were acts of sexual misbehaviour and abuse against children.

Attorney General Dr Dinmani Pokharel opined that online crime would not only affect socially but also psychologically.

Stating that earlier cases of sexual abuse against children were reported at the physical level, he said that children were prone to sexual abuse through the internet lately, which, he added, immensely affected children psychologically.

He called for raising awareness about the laws put in place to protect children from abuses in all forms. According to him, the findings of the study would be a ‘milestone’ for the formulation of law regarding the protection of children from cyber crimes.

It is stated that actions such as asking for obscene photos from children and sending insensitive messages among others by abusing the internet were acts of sexual misbehaviour and abuse against children.

Similarly, the CDO of Lalitpur, Rudra Prasad Pandit, expressed his concern over more and more children being subjected to sexual abuse through the internet these days.

He demanded for a provision in the ‘setting’ of every mobile phone that would prevent websites from showing sexual videos of children.

Likewise, SSP Siddhi Bikram Shah lamented that if there were complaints from victim children about sexual abuse, there was a problem in taking action against the culprit of sexual abuse against children in a lack of resources to find out where actually the sexual abuse took place.

He informed that the ‘Child Save Mode’ was put in Wi-Fi to prevent children from accessing porn sites.

Likewise, Nepal Bar Association President Gopal Krishna Ghimire viewed that children should be kept away from laptop, mobile and iPad use.