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  ‘Revenge porn’ on the rise in Europe

‘Revenge porn’ on the rise in Europe

AFP
Published : Sep 29, 2016, 5:15 am IST
Updated : Sep 29, 2016, 5:15 am IST

Live streaming of child sexual abuse and so-called “revenge porn” is on the rise on the Internet, Europe’s police agency warned on Wednesday, saying vulnerable children are increasingly falling victim

Live streaming of child sexual abuse and so-called “revenge porn” is on the rise on the Internet, Europe’s police agency warned on Wednesday, saying vulnerable children are increasingly falling victim to sexual predators.

“Live distant child abuse is... Being reported as a growing threat,” Europol said in its latest annual cyber organised crime threat assessment, released at its headquarters in The Hague.

Live streaming of child sex abuse “involves a perpetrator directing the live abuse of children on a (pre-arranged) specific time-frame through video sharing platforms,” Europol said in the 72-page report.

“The abuse can be ‘tailored’ to the requests of the soliciting offender(s) and recorded,” it added.

More generally “the volume, scope and material cost of cybercrime all remain on an upward trend and have reached very high levels,” the agency said in a separate statement.

Most illegal activities take place in the so-called “darknet” or encrypted peer-to-peer networks, which offer greater degrees of anonymity to users. Traditionally live stream child abuse groups were based in southeast Asia, particularly the Philippines, but that “recent reports indicate that it is now spreading to other countries,” Europol warned.

“Countries with high levels of poverty, limited domestic child protection measures and easy access to children are being targeted by offenders,” the agency said.

“The exploitation of children online is a huge problem for us,” Steven Wilson, Europol’s cyber crime centre (EC3) chief said. Mr Wilson added cyber crime investigators have also noticed a rise in so-called “revenge porn”, where sexually explicit images are posted without another person’s consent in order to harm that person or cause distress.