Time to end online sexual harassment
People watching video live streaming on their phones. A new report by Equality Now raises alarm over growing use of social media and online gaming to bait women and girls into sexual activities.
What you need to know:
- Lack of explicit laws on taming online sexual exploitation and abuse its complicating efforts to end the new era form of gender-based violence.
- A report by Equality Now raises alarm over growing use of social media and online gaming to bait women and girls into sexual activities.
Lack of explicit laws on taming online sexual exploitation and abuse its complicating efforts to end the new era form of gender-based violence (GBV) that is rapidly expanding in its prevalence at an alarming rate.
A report released on Monday by Equality Now, raises alarm over growing use of social media and online gaming to bait women and girls into sexual activities.
The bigger problem though is that the extent to which they are exposed to online grooming, live streaming of sexual abuse, child sexual abuse material, online sexual coercion and extortion, online sex trafficking, and image-based sexual abuse, cannot be told since majority of the victims never report the crimes.
They suffer in silence as some blame themselves for what happened, others are ashamed or fear prosecution, sometimes retribution from perpetrators.
For some, the thought that authorities will not take their reports seriously condemns them to silence.
A survivor from Nigeria interviewed regarding the abuse is quoted in the report to have said: “I went to the police to report what had happened but I received no support."
Ridiculed
"They asked me to show them the pictures and I just couldn’t because I felt like I was the one publicising them. The police started saying all sorts of things. They were ridiculing and laughing at me. I felt very bad about the way I was treated."
Worse still, the legal experts who reviewed related laws in Kenya, India, Nigeria, United Kingdom and the United States, established a vacuum in that countries have not revised their legislations to address the technology aided GBV.
The report points out gaps in the Sexual Offences Act (2006), noting that although it criminalises displaying obscene images, words, or sounds by means of print, audio-visual or any other media to lure a child into sexual act, it fails to consider the fact that "children may be groomed through “innocent” conversations."
Kenyan law also works against the victims.
The experts particularly note the absence of explicit offense addressing live streaming of sexual exploitation and abuse, with its dangers exemplified in the arrest of 10 women in Mombasa in 2019. The women were exploited by a man to shoot pornography for his live streaming site.
Instead, they were charged with trafficking obscene publications.
"We’re calling for comprehensive action from the international community, governments, and digital service providers to holistically address online sexual harassment and abuse," the experts urge in the report.
