Online sexual abuse against children is on the rise at a dangerous rate

 

The president of the Child Support Institute (IAC) warned today that sexual abuse against children on the internet “is increasing in a particularly dangerous way” and called for reflection and concrete actions because “there is a lot to do”.

In an interview with the Lusa news agency, when her second term as director of the IAC, where she worked for around 20 years, ends, Dulce Rocha highlighted online sexual abuse as the main current danger for children and young people.

He argued that it is necessary to call on the various platforms and stop the dissemination of abusive content, giving as an example the case of the United Kingdom, where “very restrictive laws on abusive content” were approved, which allow it to be blocked.

Dulce Rocha pointed out that “it has been very difficult to achieve consensus” among the member states of the European Union and warned that “currently, both hate speech and abusive content are increasing in a frightening way”.

“There is a lot to do and MEPs cannot just worry about financial issues [because] the issue of children’s safety is fundamental,” she said.

“If we don’t have safety in children, we don’t have safety anywhere,” she added.

She warned that the fact that “the child is in the room does not mean that he is safe” and that, therefore, there should be more dialogue in families and schools, since children and young people “know much more about the internet than adults”, but adults understand the issue of dangers and insecurity much better.

“When they are on [social] networks, many children, many young people, escape us and this is becoming a bit dramatic and we should all sit down at the table to better understand how it works and how we can protect these children”, Dulce Rocha concluded.