By: V4 Agency
A new UN report on pedophilia, released in early July, shows a dramatic increase in online paedophile activities during the pandemic. A new report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime confirms warnings about the growth of child trafficking and the spread of paedophilia and child pornography.
According to a UN report released on 9 July, traffickers had adapted very quickly to the pandemic situation. The report finds, among other things, that criminals use social networking sites and other online platforms to recruit new victims, taking advantage of the fact that people all around the world spend much more time in front of their monitors. The demand for and consumption of paedophile content has also increased. According to a report by US organisation NCMEC (National Center for Missing and Exploited Children), the number of suspected online harassment cases aiming at the production of child pornography increased by 63.31 per cent during the pandemic.
The US Child Rescue Coalition – which has developed map-based tracking technology to identify computers which share/download child pornography images and videos – estimates that more than 750 thousand paedophiles are almost constantly online somewhere in the world, exchanging files and broadcasting live between themselves. The organisation has recently condemned web and social media giants, saying they do little or nothing to prevent child abuse videos and content from being published and traded on their platforms.
The new “Temporary rules on the detection of online sexual abuse of children” approved by the European Parliament on 6 July allow web, chat and messaging service providers to take up the fight against online child pornography on a voluntary basis. Don Fortunato Di Noto, a leading figure of the fight against paedophilia and child pornography for 30 years, called the legislation an “unacceptable, weak, non-transparent compromise” which does not take into account the protection of minors. According to him, server providers should be required to cooperate and to provide all tools necessary to identify those who disseminate and promote child pornography and paedophile ideology and lure children into their hands.
La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana highlights the EU’s “laxity”, and expresses concern over EP’s and ECJ’s threats to Hungary over the country’s “anti-pedophilia law”. The portal stresses that in the meanwhile, Brussels refuses to act against the Netherlands and the Dutch paedophile party (called the Party for the Love, Freedom and Diversity of Others), which is currently operating legally in the country.