Child sex predators seek victims online
12th April, 2018
Online child sex exploitation of children is following the path of traditional offline hotspots, a report has stated.
The document titled The Dark Side of the Internet for Children prepared by Terre des Hommes, a Dutch children’s rights organization states that the practice is prevalent in the coastal strip where sex tourism has a strong presence.
Grace Kirui, the organization’s regional programme development manager said in an interview with Standard Digital on Thursday that a combination of factors have contributed to the vice finding root in the coast and other urban areas.
“The hotspots that we have come across are layered on areas where the exploitation has already been happening. There is prevalence of child sex tourism happening in those areas,” Kirui said.
She adds that these areas that have been characterized by tolerance to the practice along with the reality of poverty which has led to the trend migrating from offline to the digital space.
This, she adds, has especially been rampant with the penetration of the internet and availability of smartphones.
Kirui further attributed the growing challenge to unsupervised access to the internet by minors giving rise to online grooming, where predators use false identities to lure the minors into the world of online sex exploitation.
“Once the (online) relationship is established, some asked to meet the child, what we call
