Coronavirus: Closures risk 'spike' in child sex abuse
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Botswana is failing its children, activists say
By Kago Komane ..
Children may be at greater risk of grooming as they spend more time online, charity warns
By Tes Reporter
Experts are preparing for a spike in public reports of child sexual abuse on the internet as schools across the UK close during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) is concerned children might be at greater risk of being groomed and coerced into making explicit content, given that many will undoubtedly spend more time online from Monday.
Susie Hargreaves, the charity's chief executive said increasingly videos and photos are taken by the children themselves, who have been targeted by "ruthless predators" under false identities.
"Heartbreakingly, we see more and more of this material being filmed by children themselves on devices, sometimes livestreamed from their own bedrooms in the family home," she said.
"My fear is that, with more young children being sent home from school, more of them will be spending a lot longer online, possibly exposing them to some of these criminals."
In 2019, the charity – which is responsible for finding and removing videos and images of children suffering sexual abuse from the internet – looked into a record of 260,400 reports, up from the 229,328 it investigated the year before.
Of those in 2019, 132,700 were confirmed to be of images or videos of children being sexually abused, an increase on the 105,047 in 2018.
The charity says its hotline will continue to operate while other staff members are forced to work from home to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
"We are bracing ourselves for a spike in reports," Ms Hargreaves said.
"The pandemic is forcing more and more people to stay indoors, and a lot of people are going to be spending much more time on the internet and at home on electronic devices.
"More people alone in their homes, and more people spending longer online sadly means we are likely to see more people stumbling across criminal material involving child sexual abuse on the internet.
"We are also expecting criminals to be more active on the internet during the coming months.
"This could mean we'll see an unprecedented number of public reports to our hotline as more people spot things that are not right and report it to us."
The charity urges parents to trust their children but have a frank conversation with them about the dangers.
It has also been reported that teachers believe children could be targeted by county lines gangs as schools shut down.
The Children's Society charity told The Independent: “School provides a safe place and supervision for vulnerable children, and it is a real concern that without this they may be more at risk of being targeted by criminals seeking to exploit them.
"Some children may be living in difficult situations at home and without social interaction and support during the day at school, they may be more likely to go missing, which we know can increase the risks of exploitation.
"Families living in poverty are also likely to face further financial challenges in the coming months, which criminals may try to exploit by grooming children with promises of easy cash.
"While it is welcome that the government has said all vulnerable children should be able to attend school, we know that many are hidden from view and may not benefit from a social care status that means they can continue to do so."
Botswana is failing its children, activists say
A confidential report submitted by ECPAT International suggests cases of child abuse in Botswana go unreported and that the scale of the problem is far greater than reflected in police and other government statistics. (Photo: Leila Dougan)
Activists fear Botswana is increasingly becoming a haven for paedophiles and the sexual grooming of children because the government is failing to implement its own laws on the protection of the young. Their legal rights are minimal and the judicial system is failing to protect them.
According to Child Rights International Network (CRIN), Botswana ranked 135th out of 197 countries in its global ranking on access to justice for children – how it treats them in legal proceedings and the legal and practical means available to challenge violations of their rights.
Of a possible score of 261, it registered 40.2. CRIN pointed out that the country has been widely criticised for continuing to enshrine the legality of life imprisonment and flogging as criminal sentences for children.
The government has endorsed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child by enacting a Children’s Act that enshrines children’s rights in 2009. However, activists complain that child protection is not a priority in the country.
They also say that the government does not account fully to international bodies, despite its formal commitments.
A confidential report submitted by ECPAT International – a worldwide network of organisations working to end the sexual exploitation of children – to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in 2018 says there is limited data on violence against children in Botswana.
The report suggests cases of abuse go unreported and that the scale of the problem is far greater than reflected in police and other government statistics.
“Police data are often incomplete and limited, and many cases go unreported for fear of stigmatisation. Most are ‘hidden’ in an attempt to preserve the family’s social status and integrity,” reads the report.
Chirwa Mahloko, a human rights adviser at the outreach programme Stepping Stones International, observes that child sexual abuse and sexually transmitted infection is a growing public health problem in Botswana, compounded in rural areas by the failure to manage cases and put in place preventative measures.
Prevention initiatives should take on additional importance in poorer settings where resources for managing abused children are severely limited, but critics say this is not the case.
Mahloko said shortcomings include further victimisation of victims of child abuse, a legal system that is unfriendly to children, and the lack of safe and supportive shelters for victims.
He said that the number of cases of child sex abuse is increasing.
There is more on this story at the Daily Maverick.
Survivors of the Streets of Dhaka, Bangladesh
Illustration: Noor Us Safa Anik
Nilima JahanFor children on the streets, exploitation, abuse, and neglect is just an everyday affair. And overlooking them, is a part of our everyday affair.
At this very moment, the government has no statistics on the number of homeless children, let alone the number who are being exposed to violence, sexual abuse, drug addiction, corporal punishment, malnutrition, and lack of shelter on a regular basis.
Although Article 28 (1) of the constitution mentions that the state shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth, these abandoned street children are denied their rights to a safe and healthy childhood.
Sexual abuse is currency
The story of 15-year-old Suma from Netrakona perhaps best depicts the nature of sexual abuse one faces on the streets. After her parents separated, her mother came to Dhaka and married another man in the Kawran Bazar area. Although Suma had been living with her grandmother in their village, her mother brought her to Dhaka when she was 12 years old and sent her to work as a domestic help in a house in Mohammadpur, in exchange for a lump sum of cash. That was the first time she experienced the sexual harassment of men.
According to Suma, her employer, a middle-aged businessman in Kawran Bazar, often tried to get close and touch her, talked dirty, and would use vulgar gestures. She escaped the house within a month but when she went to her mother, she was beaten up severely and disowned, now that she was a financial burden.
Suma ultimately ended up living on the streets. She soon realised that life on the streets is daunting, especially for girls her age. "I used to sleep in the Kawran Bazar area. Soon, people started inviting me to go with them in exchange for Tk 500. I've faced abusive proposals every day. I even started wearing pants and shirts like boys but people could identify me as a girl when I spoke," said Suma.
Talking to The Daily Star, Suma went on to share a horrible experience she went through in her early days on the streets. "One day, I was so hungry and I didn't have any money to buy food. I met a person and begged for money from him and he assured me that he will give me Tk 50, if I carry a load of net bags on my head and deliver that door-to-door with him. It was about evening when we finished delivering the net bags, but instead of paying me my money, he took me to a nearby narrow alley and clamped a piece of cloth on my face," explains Suma. "I could feel that I was getting weaker as he was dragging me to a building. But I was lucky as some people saw what happened and the man ran away immediately," narrates Suma.
13-year-old Munia has a similar story—her parents separating, coming to Dhaka, begging on the streets, and eventually, being physically and sexually abused by passers-by. She said girls on the streets start getting sexually abused by people they know and interact with regularly. "If you say no, you cannot live in that particular spot, because it's their area. There is not a single place that is safe for girls on the streets," she adds.
According to Mamun Bakaul, the resident social and health worker of a government-led shelter home, an overwhelming majority of street children, especially girls, face sexual harassment on a regular basis and the harassment usually starts with the person who provides them with food and shelter.
In his experience, when a girl is new on the streets, she is spotted by floating street people, who provide them food and shelter initially. This way, they become the protector of these kids. When the children start to depend on them, they control and abuse them in whatever way they want and at one point they compel them to participate in commercial sex practices, explains Mamun.
"If they resist such abuse, they are branded with a mark on a part of their body. It marks out that she was once a 'bad girl' who lives in the streets." Workers at the shelter have seen such marks on the children.
There is more to this dreadful story on The Daily Star.
Monsters in the closet - The baby that does not exist
Zyma IslamThe Daily Star, Dhaka
Illustration: Benzadid Gani
"Bring out Adnan*!" the social worker in charge of the government orphanage instructed an attendant. A woman sitting across the desk from her, shifted in her seat.
"Does he walk? Or talk?" she asked the social worker. Before the social worker could reply, an excited toddler trotted into the room. He was only around two years old but tall for his age, his hair shorn into the dreaded bowl cut that parents and caregivers are so fond of giving.
The woman scooped him into a tight embrace and burst into tears. She began crooning his name over and over again while the child gaped at her thoroughly confused by this interaction with a complete stranger.
"Do you know me? I am your grandmother, your grandmother," she whispered to the boy but got cut short immediately by the social worker.
"You cannot tell him you are his grandmother. You are nobody to him. He only has us," the social worker told the woman, motioning to an attendant to take the child away.
"Oh, can I take a photo before you take him inside?" the woman then requested. The social worker shook her head from side-to-side.
"It is better if there are no traces of his past, considering how he was born. If he gets adopted once his court matter is settled, the adoptive family might not like that," she said.
What she was trying to explain, is that since Adnan was born of rape, it is best to have as little evidence of his past as possible, in case his future adoptive family do not want the truth to be divulged.
Adnan was born out of rape, to a mother who was not yet 11 years old at the time of giving birth. Adnan's biological father was his mother's 32-year-old neighbour who she called "uncle" and had known from the time she was six years of age.
"I work at a school and my husband lives abroad in Saudi Arabia. There have been a couple of occasions, when I've had to leave my daughter alone at home. On days when she was sick, for example. That is when he would come into the house," described the mother of the 11-year-old rape survivor. The doctors at Dhaka Medical College Hospital's One-Stop Crisis Centre (OCC) physically examined her, and surmised that the perpetrator raped her around seven or eight times.
"The man and his whole family used to visit us often, and we would do likewise. I think that is why she let him inside in the first place."
A short survey taken by Star Weekend magazine in 2017 found that for a majority of child sexual abuse cases, the perpetrator is a person close to the family, with unbarred access to the child, for example, uncles, cousins, home tutors, and domestic helpers. And for most of these cases, the place of abuse is also the place where they are supposedly the safest—at home.
The rapist compelled the then 11-year-old into keeping quiet about the situation with death threats levelled against her and her mother. "You both live alone. If you tell anyone, I will kill you both."
Trapped in that terrifying situation, the little girl sat for her primary school certificate examination. "She had not even had her periods yet, so I had no reason to believe she could be pregnant. She did not either. There was no morning sickness, no loss of appetite, no bleeding. She is also naturally a little larger than the other girls, so the pregnancy remained hidden until the very last stage," described Adnan's grandmother.
When she first noticed the bump, she thought it could be an ovarian cyst or tumour, but her daughter was going through her exams, so she decided to delay a medical checkup until those were over.
When she finally took her daughter to the doctor, the child was 32 weeks pregnant. "When the doctor informed us that he has bad news to deliver, we thought he was going to tell us it is cancer or something—but instead we find out she is pregnant."
The sky fell on her head. She rushed her to the OCC where they decided to conduct a C-section and take the baby out. "My daughter was given medication to stop her body from producing milk. The baby, we handed over to the orphanage. Nobody, not even our immediate relatives, were told what happened because of how they would perceive her. If they ever get to know, it will be disastrous. We simply told them that my daughter is sick with a virus that is very contagious so nobody can come to see us," described Adnan's grandmother. To protect her young child from the aftermath of being a rape survivor, she made it seem like the rape never happened and that the baby was never born.
And why would she not—for even protectors within the system continue to doubt the child. A gynecologist who assesses rape survivors heard the mother's case outside the tribunal two weeks back and wondered aloud how the child—a girl who is now only 12—will get married in the future.
"I don't care about getting my child married! I will make her a high-ranking government official who is so powerful that everybody defers their head in respect!" spat out the mother when the doctor left.
Meanwhile, the social worker taking care of Adnan, questioned whether Adnan's mother—a 10-year-old at the time of the incident—was raped, or whether it was a romantic entanglement.
"I mean, was she really raped? When we were growing up in the village, we did not know how babies are born before university but city girls…" started the social worker in an attempt to victim-shame.
Forget the fact that the social worker is overlooking the fact that the girl was so young she was not even menstruating; even if it is at all possible for a 10-year-old to get involved with a 32-year-old man, any sexual encounters with a minor will be considered rape as long as the law of the land prevails, and it is astounding how even social workers forget that.
"This is why I did not agree to keep the baby, even though it breaks my heart to give him over to an orphanage," said Adnan's grandmother.
Taking their secret to the grave
A total of 562 children were raped last year, as per the calculation of Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK). That makes for 1.5 rapes for every day of the year, meaning every day at least one child, potentially more, is getting raped somewhere in the country.
The calculation is more or less the same as that of the year before—in 2018, 571 children were raped. These are of course, only the reported cases—for example, the case described above was kept so hushed, it was never reported to the media, and so, never turned up in the statistics.
But that is precisely the crux of the problem—because of a lack of conversation about these topics, neither child abuse survivors, nor the caregivers find the voice to speak out. The topic lives in the realm of news, media and NGO advocacy; how many take it home to their children to introduce them to possible threats? How many parents and caregivers, after finding out that their child has been abused, help the survivor take a stand?
Why does the mother, whose story is narrated above, feel compelled to make the biggest sacrifice and give her blood and kin up for adoption, just to keep quiet about the sexual abuse?
In a piece titled "Intimate acts of violence: My experience with sexual assault as a seven-year-old" published in Star Weekend magazine in April last year, the author describes how her mother found out that her cousin was sexually abusing her, and still continued to expose her to the cousin at gatherings, and even employed him as a house-tutor for her. Even though her mother protected her from the cousin in many ways, having to face one's perpetrator is in itself a jarring experience.
Of the 258 respondents of Star Weekend's survey taken in late 2017, 147 of the respondents had never told anyone of the experience, and this number included 22 rape survivors. When asked to provide a reason as to why they never told anyone about what happened to them, they threw out responses littered with words like "shame", "fear", "disgust", and "guilt".
Most of the respondents were between five and 12 years old, when the incident happened to them. How badly are we failing our children, if they get sexually abused, and even at that young age, feel shame, fear, disgust, and guilt? How early does our social conditioning ingrain the concept of victim-blaming in the minds of our children?
85 respondents reported telling their family members or friends, and at least a third of them were either not believed, rebuked, or had no action taken.
One survivor describes how her religious teacher would abuse her under the pretext of fixing her clothes, but when she told her mother, she rebuked her instead. "Slapped me and said I shouldn't make up stories to get out of studying," is what the survivor writes.
Another survivor who was raped at the age of six, was "ordered not to speak of it again". A survivor who was molested for a year by a librarian in the year 1997, told her parents, who immediately let the school know—but the librarian continued being in employment.
What use is it anyway?
It has been two years since Adnan was born and a legal case filed, and one cannot be sure when this will end. But when it does, Adnan will be able to be adopted by a family—no matter how long it takes.
While we do not have the most recent statistics on convictions in rape cases, a book published in 2018 by Prothoma titled "Shaja Matro Tin Shotangsho" points out only three percent of all rape cases between 2002 and then, managed to get convictions. The book also states that of all the types of cases being dealt with by the Women and Children's Tribunal, the least amount of progress is seen in sexual harassment cases—i.e. cases of sexual violence where the survivor hasn't suffered the maximum injury.
In such a bleak situation, how does one expect child sexual abuse survivors to speak out?
"Compared to all rape cases, the courts are more proactive when the victims are minors," reassures Fahmida Akhter, the lawyer of Dhaka's One-Stop Crisis Centre.
That is poor consolation for Tuni's* father Lokman. More than two years ago, Star Weekend reported the rape of a child who was about two years old at the time of the incident in a piece titled "Not seen, not heard, not believed". By the time the report was done, Tuni had already been fighting for a year and half. In the two years that have gone by since then, nothing has changed for the family, except for the fact that Tuni is now older.
"She used to stutter and stumble to explain what happened to her before, but can describe everything clearly now," said her father.
But the burden of pulling a case bears heavily on him.
"The rapist's family has already come to us with offers of money to settle the issue. It has been so long—we had to leave the area where we used to live in, I had to change my profession to be a rickshaw puller, and he continues to threaten us. I don't know how much longer this will take," he lamented.
He is on the fence about taking the money and settling out of court. If he does cave in, Tuni's rapist too, threatens to slip away into the mass of faceless sexual abusers encircling our children, striking under the security of anonymity and impunity.
Grooming gang victim refused compensation for abuse because she had a driving conviction
Lizzie Dearden Home Affairs Correspondent
The Independent
Found guilty: twenty members of the Huddersfield grooming gang ( West Yorkshire Police )
A woman who was sexually abused from the age of 11 by a grooming gang has been refused compensation because of a driving offence.
Lucy* helped secure the conviction of 20 men by giving evidence about the horrific rapes she suffered in Huddersfield, while supposedly in the care of the local council.
Following the trials, she applied to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) because she was entitled to recompense for sexual abuse and its life-long impact.
But CICA rejected the application because of a dangerous driving conviction, for which Lucy had been handed a community sentence.
“I wasn’t in it for the money, I was in it purely to tell my story and get justice,” Lucy told The Independent. “I was advised to apply for compensation but CICA declined it because of my conviction.”
In a March 2019 letter, the authority said it could not award her compensation while the conviction was unspent – still on her criminal record.
A CICA official said the scheme’s terms meant that there was “no leeway or discretion for me to take into account the individual circumstances”. Lucy requested a review but in October, CICA again refused to grant compensation because the application was considered a duplicate.
She said the incident that sparked the refusal was “not a major offence” compared to the years of abuse she suffered.
Lucy, now in her 20s, had pleaded guilty to dangerous driving following a police chase where she drove through red lights and crashed. No one was injured in the incident, which happened while she was giving evidence at her rapists’ court trial and had been refused counselling in case it affected her account.
Lucy told said she had gone into “panic mode” because she believed a group of Asian men were driving towards her.
Dame Vera Baird, the victims’ commissioner for England and Wales, said she had “real concerns” about rules denying compensation to victims with unspent convictions.
She told The Independent her office had urged the Ministry of Justice to allow discretion in cases like Lucy’s as part of a review of the scheme. “It cannot be right automatically to deny these victims compensation and there is a danger we are doing them a grave injustice,” Dame Vera said.
“It is accepted that there can often be a direct link between these crimes and future criminal behaviour of the victims.”
Grooming victims will not be refused compensation because of 'consent'
Hundreds of sex assault victims with convictions refused compensation
Sex abuse victims as young as 12 refused compensation over 'consent'
Diana Fawcett, chief executive of Victim Support, said grooming victims were disproportionately affected by the “unfair” rule and called for it to be changed. “This case sadly highlights that CICA rules are outdated and in need of reform,” she added.
“Compensation can play a vital role in making life easier for victims and survivors. Making deductions for minor unrelated convictions is unjust and can lead to distress and re-traumatisation.”
Lucy was first targeted by a grooming gang in Huddersfield by members who sold her mother drugs, and even after she was taken into care they continued to target her.
She was repeatedly taken out of a children’s home to be raped. Lucy accuses the local council of placing her with foster carers who enabled the abuse, as police failed to intervene.
Kirklees Council said its understanding of child sexual exploitation had “moved forward tremendously” and a recent review found good practice.
The abuse resulted in Lucy having an abortion aged 15 and having a child when she was 16.
Vandalism at the home of a Huddersfield grooming gang victim who has been harassed since giving evidence at her abusers' trials (Supplied)
She finished school without passing any GCSEs and suffers from trauma and other mental health issues that were exacerbated by “reliving” her experience in court.
Investigators approached her in 2015 after reviewing their records, but Lucy waited three years for trials to start and has been harassed since giving evidence.
She has been bombarded with calls, approached by her abusers’ associates near her home, had her home vandalised and was illegally identified on social media.
Lucy accuses police of neglecting to protect her since she agreed to come forward, and views the CICA’s decision as the latest failure by authorities.
“For me it wasn’t about money, but the system owes me more than what my life can be now,” Lucy said. “I’ll never get my childhood back.”
West Yorkshire Police said it had made security arrangements for Lucy and that her needs and welfare “are paramount”.
A government website says CICA makes payments on its behalf to “blameless victims of violent crime” as “society’s way of recognising that [they] have been a victim”.
It was previously condemned for refusing grooming victims compensation because it claimed they “consented” to being raped, but changed its guidance in 2017 and vowed to “make sure every victim gets the compensation to which they are entitled”.
The Ministry of Justice, which funds CICA, said it could not comment on individual cases. A spokesperson said: “Victims of child sexual abuse show immense bravery coming forward and it is vital they receive all possible support to recover from their ordeal.
“That is why we have doubled funding for emotional and practical support for victims since 2013.
“Through our Victims’ Strategy we are making improvements at every stage of the process, including reviewing eligibility for compensation and improving the court experience.”
*Lucy is a pseudonym used to protect the victim’s anonymity
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