Positive Stories in the War on Child Sex Abuse - Episode XXVIII

The best news I've heard in a long time!
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Former Home Secretary to lead inquiry into child sex abuse in the UK

Tristan Harris

Bromsgrove Standard

MORE than one in six children are sexually abused in the UK – those are the shocking findings set to be revealed as part of an investigation being led by former Home Secretary and Bromsgrove MP Sajid Javid.

Working in partnership with the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), Mr Javid will expose not only the extent of child sex abuse (CSA) and exploitation in the country but the general characteristics of offenders and victims.

It will also map out recommendations for decisive action to turn the tide.

The epidemic was apparent before the Covid-19 pandemic but it is feared the lockdown has created the nightmare scenario of victims being trapped in quarantine with their abusers – some even members of their own family.

In an article for the Sunday Telegraph, Mr Javid foresaw a ‘surge’ in CSA that would only become apparent later in the year.

He also made clear he would not let accusations of racism deter the inquiry from probing outrages such as the Rochdale and Rotherham grooming scandals in which gangs of men – of predominantly Asian background – targeted vulnerable young white girls.

God bless you, Mr Javid, for having the courage to actually seek the truth. You seem to be one of the few MPs who actually care about children. 

The former Home Secretary said: “The seriousness of this crime demands that difficult questions are asked.

“It is a source of great sadness and anger for me that in recent high-profile cases of group-based CSE, the men convicted have been disproportionately of Pakistani heritage. (As Javid is, himself).

“In weighing the significance of this, our investigation will not allow cultural or political sensitivities get in the way of understanding the problem, nor will it limit our understanding of who the perpetrators are and how this crime often goes undetected.

“We will follow the evidence, regardless of how uncomfortable the outcome.”

Mr Javid revealed when he took over the Home Office in 2018, he was shocked to discover the ‘full horror’ of CSA, with the National Crime Agency now estimating there were at least 300,000 people in the UK who pose a sexual threat to children.

Referrals of child abuse images from industry alone are up 1,000 per cent since 2013 and evidence suggested one in six children are sexually abused.

Mr Javid added the threat to children continued to escalate and evolve at pace which prompted him to join forces with the CSJ to launch an extensive, no holds barred investigation into child sexual abuse and exploitation in the UK.

In concert with the think tank set up by former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former Cabinet minister promised to ‘endeavour to improve our understanding of who perpetrators typically are, and how they came to be paedophiles’, ‘examine the changing patterns of offending, and establish which children are most vulnerable’ and ‘make concrete policy recommendations, and seek to arm the Government with ideas capable of turning the tide’.

And remember, Pakistani predators are very different from those who are not Muslim. Islam, the Quran, and Mohammed unquestionably give permission to devout Muslim men to do as they wish with kafarah.

In the year ending March 2019, the police in England and Wales recorded 73,260 sexual offences where there are data to identify the victim was a child.

In the new inquiry, the CSJ will review existing data and undertake new research (such as identifying how many ongoing investigations there are), assessing the current rate of offending; investigating the characteristics of these offenders and assessing the number of likely victims to date.

Andy Cook, Chief Executive of the CSJ, said: “We welcome Mr Javid’s support at a time when over one in six British children are facing the sickening threat of sexual abuse.

“It is highly courageous of him to speak out on the issue, which has been difficult to confront and too often neglected.

“As the CSJ investigation into child sex abuse and exploitation starts, we hope to contribute immensely to public knowledge on this sickening practice, as well as formulating steps to end the abuse epidemic.”

The inquiry will examine CSA and child sexual exploitation (CSE), a subset of CSA, popularly known as ‘grooming’ vulnerable children for sexual purposes.

Key questions to be answered by the CSA part of the investigation are whether ubiquitous access to the Internet changed the way in which sexual crimes against children are being perpetrated and how successfully those with a sexual interest in children are prevented from committing crimes and punished if they do?

It will also look at children vulnerable to CSA who would benefit from targeted interventions, what more can be done to prevent CSA and how successfully protected and served adults who have survived sexual abuse in childhood are.

It seems the previous inquiry commissioned by Mr Javid when Home Secretary, will not be released to the public. But I am very glad that he will be looking even more deeply into this horror story, I can hardly imagine a better outcome at this point. 

The current statistic of more than 1 in six children being vulnerable, means that probably one in four or one in three girls are likely to suffer CSA, the consequences of which are very disturbing.

A $5 Billion Proposal to Fight Online Child Sexual Abuse

New legislation would try to curb the illegal imagery with record levels of funding for law enforcement. The bill, coming in response to a Times investigation, also calls for a new oversight position in the White House.

A phone was analyzed for child abuse material last year after a raid on a suspect’s home.

Credit...Kholood Eid for The New York Times

By Michael H. Keller

Lawmakers in Washington, after years of inattention, have identified child sexual abuse imagery and exploitation on the internet as an urgent problem. But as new legislation demonstrates, there are differing approaches to fighting a surge of the illegal activity, which tech companies are detecting in record numbers.

A bill expected to be introduced this week in both houses of Congress calls for an unparalleled crackdown on people who create and view the material. It would create nearly 200 positions at some federal law enforcement groups and double the budgets of others — allotting a total of $5 billion over 10 years — and create a Senate-confirmed official in the White House to oversee the spending.

The bill’s sponsor said it was sparked by a New York Times investigation last fall into the exponential growth of the illicit content. Last year, nearly 70 million images and videos of child sexual abuse, commonly known as child pornography, were reported to the authorities. Two other bills have since been introduced that address shortcomings The Times identified.

The Times found that state and local law enforcement efforts were grossly underfunded, and that the federal government had failed to adequately enforce a 2008 law meant to curb the spread of the material. Many technology companies, moreover, were found to be doing very little to patrol their own platforms.

And most of what they do is tokenism. If they actually did monitor their platforms and get rid of child abuse images, they might be trusted more. But they have not earned any trust whatsoever.

The new bill borrows some elements from the prior proposals but differs significantly in focusing on the government, not tech companies, to rein in the problem.

For example, under a provision in one of the earlier bills, websites would have to follow safety guidelines or risk losing longstanding protections for their content, opening themselves to lawsuits. Privacy proponents have expressed concern that the guidelines could be used to block encryption on popular messaging apps and other platforms; many tech companies also oppose it.

“The best way to go is to give public servants — prosecutors, investigators and preventive services — dollars and hold them accountable,” said Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, who plans to introduce the newest bill on Wednesday. “That is much better than basically saying you want to unleash a bunch of civil lawsuits that take years.”

I vote for both!

Mr. Wyden’s bill, which is also expected to be introduced in the House by Representative Anna G. Eshoo, Democrat of California, would expand resources at federal, state and local agencies. The Federal Bureau of Investigation would get 100 new agents to work on child exploitation, trafficking and abduction cases; the Department of Justice’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section would create 90 new positions.

The legislation would also give $60 million a year to state and local task forces focused on the problem, and $15 million a year to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, a nonprofit that serves as the federally designated clearinghouse for abuse imagery. Each of these groups has historically received around $30 million a year, and would still be eligible to receive that money through the normal budgeting process.

The bill echoes some provisions of the landmark 2008 law that for the first time provided law enforcement with a steady stream of funding to fight online exploitation, and also created a federal position within the Justice Department to oversee child protection efforts nationwide.

But in the years since, the national coordinator position has not been given the authority outlined in the law, and the increasing volume of child sexual abuse reports has overwhelmed the authorities, forcing them to make hard choices about how to prioritize limited resources. Many local law enforcement groups, for example, said the growing tide of reports left them unable to carry out undercover investigations, which had often led to apprehending some of the more dangerous offenders.

The national center has also struggled to keep up with the rise in reports. Yiota Souras, its general counsel, said the clearinghouse supported the new bill, which would provide for an additional 65 jobs. Most of the hires would be analysts who review, investigate and prioritize reports before sending them to law enforcement, she said.

“This bill enables us to staff up in a way that can begin to address the huge increases in volume and complexity of reports that we are now receiving on online child sexual exploitation,” Ms. Souras said. “More people can review more reports more quickly.”

Senator Ron Wyden is expected to introduce the legislation on Wednesday. 

Credit...Erin Scott for The New York Times

Mr. Wyden said the bill would avoid the fate of the neglected 2008 law by finding money outside the normal appropriations process to pay for the stepped-up enforcement. The additional funds would come from customs fees collected by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, according to the bill.

Hmmm. Is that going to be a problem?

The senator said he hoped the bill would put more of a spotlight on the issue both through its large spending scope and by requiring Senate confirmation of the new director, making the position harder to ignore. The director would be able to grant funds to a wide range of groups serving victims and fighting child exploitation, as well as oversee a long-term study on the effectiveness of prevention efforts.

CBC News a finalist for 2019 Michener Award

for public service journalism

CBC News 

A joint CBC News and Sports investigation is among the six finalists for the 2019 Michener Award, which is given for excellence in public service journalism. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press)

CBC News has been selected as one of six finalists for the country's top prize for public service journalism for its investigative series Shattered Trust: Sexual Offences in Amateur Sport. 

The five other nominees are the Halifax Examiner, La Presse, the London Free Press, the Globe and Mail and the Institute for Investigative Journalism. 

The CBC series, which was a joint project by CBC News and Sports, revealed that over a 20-year period, at least 222 coaches involved in amateur sports in Canada were convicted of sexual offences involving more than 600 victims under the age of 18. 

The reporting led to a new national zero-tolerance abuse policy and toll-free helpline, a federal study into abuse in sport, and the development of a code of conduct for coaches.

The Michener Award was founded in 1970 by Gov. Gen. Roland Michener to honour excellence in public service journalism. The judges base their decisions in part on the degree of public benefit generated by the print, broadcast and online entries submitted for consideration.

The award is normally handed out at a ceremony at Rideau Hall hosted by the Governor General, but this year's ceremony has been postponed to a later date due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

For a list of stories from CBC on this subject please go to CBC News and scroll to the bottom of the story.

I don't know what the other stories were about, but I'm inclined to believe that this is certainly the most important. Child sex abuse does not get nearly enough exposure for the astonishing damage it does.

But it is not just amateur sports that needs to be studied, it is every organization where children are involved. Where there is honey, there will be flies.

Call for credit card freeze on porn sites

By Megha Mohan
Gender and identity correspondent

Major credit card companies should block payments to pornographic sites, according to a group of international campaigners and campaign groups who say they work to tackle sexual exploitation.

A letter seen by the BBC, signed by 10 campaigners and campaign groups, says porn sites "eroticise sexual violence, incest, and racism" and stream content that features child sexual abuse and sex trafficking.

One leading site, Pornhub, said "the letter [was] not only factually wrong but also intentionally misleading."

Mastercard told the BBC they were investigating claims made in the letter on pornography sites and would "terminate their connection to our network" if illegal activity by a cardholder was confirmed.

The letter was sent to 10 major credit card companies, including the "Big Three", Visa, MasterCard and American Express. The signatories from countries including the UK, US, India, Uganda and Australia have called for the immediate suspension of payments to pornographic sites.

The signatories of the letter include the conservative non-profit group the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) in the US, and several other faith-led or women and child rights' advocacy groups.

The letter alleges it is impossible to "judge or verify consent in any videos on their site, let alone live webcam videos" which "inherently makes pornography websites a target for sex traffickers, child abusers, and others sharing predatory nonconsensual videos".

"We've been seeing an increasingly global outcry about the harms of pornography sharing websites in a number of ways in recent months," said Haley McNamara, the director of the UK-based International Centre on Sexual Exploitation, the international arm of the NCOSE and a signatory of the letter.

"We in the international child advocacy and anti-sexual exploitation community are demanding financial institutions to critically analyse their supportive role in the pornography industry, and to cut ties with them," she told the BBC.

A report on the appetite for child abuse videos on pornography sites was published in April by India Child Protection Fund (ICPF). The organisation said there had been a steep increase in demand for child abuse searches on pornography sites in India, particularly since coronavirus lockdown.

Monitoring pornography online

Pornhub, the most popular pornography streaming site, is named in the letter. In 2019, it registered more than 42 billion visits, the equivalent of 115 million a day.

Pornhub was under scrutiny last year when one of its content providers - Girls Do Porn - became the subject of an FBI investigation.

The FBI charged four people working for the production company that created the channel of coaxing women into making pornographic films under false pretences. Pornhub removed the Girls Do Porn channel as soon as the charges were made.

Commenting to the BBC in February regarding this case, Pornhub said its policy was to "remove unauthorised content as soon as we are made aware of it, which is exactly what we did in this case".

In October last year a 30-year-old Florida man, Christopher Johnson, faced charges for sexually abusing a 15 year old. Videos of the alleged attack had been posted on Pornhub.

In the same statement to the BBC in February, Pornhub said its policy was to "remove unauthorised content as soon as we are made aware of it, which is exactly what we did in this case".

The Internet Watch Foundation, a UK organisation that specialises in monitoring online sexual abuse - particularly of children - confirmed to the BBC that they had found 118 instances of child sexual abuse and child rape videos on Pornhub between 2017 and 2019. The body works in partnership with global police and governments to flag illegal content.

In a statement to the BBC, a spokesperson for Pornhub said they had "a steadfast commitment to eradicating and fighting any and all illegal content, including non-consensual and under-age material. Any suggestion otherwise is categorically and factually inaccurate."

"Our content moderation system is at the forefront of the industry, utilising leading technologies and moderation techniques that create a comprehensive process to detect and rid the platform of any illegal content.

Pornhub said the letter was sent by organisations "who attempt to police people's sexual orientation and activity - are not only factually wrong but also intentionally misleading."

American Express has had a global policy in place since 2000 that says it prohibits transactions for adult digital content where the risk is deemed unusually high, with a total ban on online pornography. In an interview with the Smartmoney website in 2011, a spokesperson for American Express at the time said this was due to high levels of disputes, and an additional safeguard in the fight against child pornography.

Yet, the organisations also sent the letters to American Express, because they say American Express payment options have been offered on pornography sites - including one that specialises in teenage themed content.

A spokesperson for American Express told the BBC that while the global policy still stood, American Express had a pilot with one company that allowed for payment to certain pornography streaming websites if the payment was made within the US and on a US consumer credit card.

Other major credit card companies, including Visa and MasterCard, do allow both credit and debit card holders to purchase online pornography.

In an email to the BBC, a spokesperson for Mastercard said they were "currently investigating the claims referred to us in the letter.

"The way our network works is that a bank connects a merchant to our network to accept card payments. If we confirm illegal activity or violations of our rules (by card holders), we will work with the merchant's bank to either bring them into compliance or to terminate their connection to our network.

"This is consistent with how we have previously worked with law enforcement agencies and groups like National and International Centers for Missing and Exploited Children."

Some moves have been made by online payment companies to distance themselves from the pornography industry.

In November 2019, Paypal, the global online payment company, announced it would no longer be supporting payments to Pornhub as their policy forbids supporting "certain sexually oriented materials or services".

In a blog on their site, Pornhub said they were "devastated" by the decision and the move would leave thousands of Pornhub models and performers who relied on subscription from the premium services without payment.

A pornography performer who shares material on Pornhub, and who asked to remain anonymous, said a payment freeze would have devastating implications for her earnings.

"Honestly, it would be a body blow," she said. "It would wipe out my entire income and I wouldn't know how to earn money, especially now in lockdown."

Following mounting pressure for more accountability from pornographic sites, Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska sent a letter to the US Department of Justice in March asking Attorney General William Barr to investigate Pornhub for allegedly streaming acts of rape and exploitation.

In the same month, nine Canadian multi-party parliamentarians wrote to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau calling for an investigation into MindGeek, the parent company of Pornhub, which has its headquarters in Montreal.

Signatories of the letter:

International Centre on Sexual Exploitation, UK,

National Center on Sexual Exploitation, US,

Collective Shout, Australia

European Network of Migrant Women, Belgium

Word Made Flesh Bolivia, Bolivia

Media Health for Children and Youth, Denmark

FiLiA, England

Apne Aap, India

Survivor Advocate, Ireland

African Network for the Prevention and Protection against Child Abuse and Neglect, Liberia

The Reward Foundation, Scotland

Talita, Sweden

The Boys' Mentorship Programme, Uganda

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Facebook paying $52 million settlement to moderators who claim they developed PTSD through work

©  REUTERS/Johanna Geron/Illustration/File Photo

Current and former moderators for Facebook will each be receiving $1,000 or more, as part of a settlement in a lawsuit that claimed having to deal with censoring content made them develop post traumatic stress disorder.

The social media giant will be paying out extra to individuals for additional mental health issues stemming from their jobs, such as depression. The settlement, first reported by The Verge, covers 11,250 moderators, while current employees will receive more counseling as part of the agreement.

“The harm that can be suffered from this work is real and severe,” a lawyer for the plaintiffs said in a statement.

While Facebook would prefer the first payment to current and former moderators to be spent on treatment, they will have full discretion how to use the funding. However, if they are diagnosed with a mental health issue stemming from their jobs, they will be entitled to anywhere from $1,500 to $6,000 in additional payments, depending on the specific diagnosis.

They can also submit a qualifying diagnosis and evidence of other injuries brought on by their jobs and be entitled to tens of thousands of additional dollars in damages.

Former employee Selena Scola first sued the company in 2018, claiming she had developed mental health issues due to being forced to look at images of things like rape and suicide. The job of a moderator at Facebook — which can pay under $30,000 a year — is to sift through and suppress content that is deemed inappropriate. 

The social media giant hired a wave of new moderators following the 2016 presidential election as part of their promised effort to remove "misleading or harmful" posts and content from their platform.

Several companies were contracted to help with the hiring spree, but the combination of low wages and less than attractive working conditions proved problematic. A report on working conditions last year described high-stress environments where people could lose jobs for only a few errors in a week, while employees used drugs and dark humor to cope with some of the more obscene content they were forced to watch.

Facebook has agreed to use certain tools they believe will help current moderators from being exposed to content that may be disturbing. Videos being reviewed will now automatically not include audio and will also be in black and white. These changes will be in place for 80 percent of employees by the end of the year and for all employees by 2021.

“We are grateful to the people who do this important work to make Facebook a safe environment for everyone,” Facebook said in a public statement.

Reports earlier this year indicated that Facebook was already having moderators sign agreements that warned issues such as PTSD could be brought on by the job. So, they can't be sued?

The company will also be having contracted companies screen employees to determine "emotional resiliency" as part of the ability to perform the job. 


More could still be required of the company as the judge has not approved the settlement yet, and plaintiffs now have time to request changes before it becomes an official agreement between the parties.

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South Korea raises age of consent from 13 to 16

By Agence France-Presse

South Korea has raised the age of consent for sex to 16 from 13 as it seeks to strengthen protection for minors following accusations the existing law on sex crimes was too weak.

AFP / Ed JONES

Under the revised law, adults who have sex with under-16-year-olds will be prosecuted for child sexual abuse or rape regardless of any alleged consent.

Previously, teenagers aged 13 or older were held to be legally capable of consenting to sex, resulting in controversial cases and critics saying that sex offenders were escaping without punishment due to the low benchmark.

In 2017, a 42-year-old man was found not guilty of raping a then 15-year-old on the grounds she had consented, provoking outrage and calls for the age limit to be raised.

Despite its economic and technological advances, South Korea remains a traditional and patriarchal society, where victims of sexual assault have been shamed for coming forward.

The age of consent was raised to 16 in order to “protect teenagers from sex crimes at a fundamental level”, the South’s Justice Ministry said in a statement.

The amended law also eliminated statutes of limitation for sexual crimes against minors under 13.

NY Child Victims Act gets 1-year extension

By Melanie Lekocevic
Columbia-Greene Media

ALBANY — The Child Victims Act received a second extension, bringing the filing deadline for child sexual abuse cases past the statute of limitations to Aug. 14, 2021.

Championed for years by New Baltimore activist and attorney Gary Greenberg, who is a survivor of child sexual abuse, the law initially opened a one-year window of opportunity for claimants of child sexual abuse to bring their case to civil court, regardless of the statute of limitations and when the alleged abuse took place.

The law originally went into effect Aug. 15, 2019, and allowed civil cases alleging child sexual abuse to be brought against individuals or institutions through Aug. 14, 2020. But the COVID-19 outbreak in March shut down courts and limited the ability of legal procedures to be carried out, so in May, Gov. Andrew Cuomo extended the look-back window by five months, to Jan. 14, 2021.

The state Legislature on May 27 voted to extend the filing date a second time, to Aug. 14, 2021.

“Due to the pandemic and the coronavirus, they had closed the courts and a lot of victims couldn’t file their cases and it has been a period of isolation, so it was felt that it was best to extend the year and give victims more time,” Greenberg said.

Greenberg estimated there are about 2,000 cases brought to court through the Child Victims Act, but he believes there are many more out there.

“There are more coming and as more people come forward, other victims will come forward,” he said. “With the period that we are in, with the coronavirus, that was limiting victims’ ability to find lawyers to take their case, the courts were closed down and a lot of law offices were closed down, so it created a situation. The extension will give people more time to find a lawyer and hopefully we will get the word out that it has been extended.”

The state Senate approved the extension unanimously by a vote of 60-0, and the Assembly passed it by a 134-10 vote.

Greenberg said he believes thousands more claimants will come forward.

“I anticipate thousands more will file. There are a lot of victims out there. Two-thousand claims are a lot, but if you figure that about 40,000 children are sexually abused a year in New York state, if you go back 50 years, that is a lot of cases,” Greenberg said. “This gives victims the opportunity to further explore their case and find a lawyer and file a claim.”

Greenberg is also lobbying for a victims fund to assist child sexual abuse victims.

Great work, Gary! So proud of what you and several other courageous people have done to make this happen. God bless.