According to the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), approximately 40,000 girls between the ages of 11 and 13 were posting naked selfies of themselves online in 2019 in Great Britain alone. Unfortunately, if it’s happening there, chances are it’s happening worldwide, in exponentially higher numbers.
According to this Thompson Reuters report,
A growing number of girls as young as 11 are being tricked or coerced into sharing selfies of themselves being sexually abused online, a charity that removes such content said on Wednesday.
The UK-based Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) said it responded to … reports of online child sex abuse recorded by the victims themselves – most of whom were girls estimated to be aged 11 to 13.
In a fast-growing form of online sex crime, abusers pressurise girls to record themselves naked or performing sex acts on their computer webcams, which abusers may then re-share, said the IWF.
“Today’s data demonstrates the alarming rate at which self-generated imagery is increasing, especially among young girls – often in domestic settings,” said Susie Hargreaves, chief executive of IWF.
“These are images and videos where girls have been groomed, coerced and tricked into performing sexually over webcam, in what is fast becoming a national crisis.”
As a parent or guardian, this is just one more thing to be aware of. While conversations about this can be difficult, you need to know if your child or their friends have ever been asked to do something like this.
Not asking….is asking for trouble. Catch it before it becomes a problem.
Image by Aksa2011 from Pixabay
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