onsdag 24. november 2021

How child sex abuse rose during pandemic in India

In July 2020, police in India's north-eastern state of Assam received a complaint about a suspicious Facebook page. A non-profit organisation had passed on information that the page had pictures and videos of children, and that it may be promoting child sexual abuse material, or CSAM.

Police opened an investigation and roughly a month later, they arrested a 28-year-old man from a village near the state capital, Guwahati. They said the man's mobile allegedly contained disturbing videos of children getting sexually assaulted. "I couldn't sleep for many nights after looking at the content," said investigation officer Geetanjali Doley.

Police alleged the man was using the Facebook page to direct people to other websites and apps to sell CSAM. It's not clear how the man benefited from this, but police said they arrested him before he began earning money from the process. The page has been pulled down and the matter is pending in court.