When schools closed down this spring, our kids’ education and social lives shifted online. Tech companies now have more influence than ever before over children’s lives, but too many platforms haven’t been designed with kids’ safety and wellbeing in mind, and the harms are mounting.
Perhaps most disturbing is the surge in reports of online child sexual abuse in recent months. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received more than 4 million such reports in April — an increase of nearly 3 million from April 2019. The FBI issued a warning to parents in March, and the Los Angeles Times reported that law enforcement officials in L.A. were “overwhelmed in recent months by a surge in tips about online child sex abuse, with social media platforms and other service providers flagging explicit content and suspicious interactions at an alarming rate.” Some sexual predators are even seizing on the opportunity, circulating a “handbook” on the dark web for how to exploit children online during the pandemic...
https://wtop.com/cyber-security/2020/12/child-predators-up-their-efforts-as-kids-spend-more-time-online/
ReplyDelete"Montgomery County had 862 tips called in this year, compared to 408 last year."