ABOUT 20 000 children in Namibia aged 12 to 17 have experienced online sexual exploitation and abuse in the last year.
According to the Disrupting Harm in Namibia report that was launched by the Ministry of Gender Equality, Poverty Eradication and Social Welfare yesterday, 30% of children who have experienced abuse online have not disclosed their experiences to anyone.
They cited fear and not knowing where to report it as reasons for this.
“Blackmailing children to engage in sexual activities, sharing their sexual images without permission, or coercing them to engage in sexual activities through promises of money or gifts, are examples of the exploitation children experience,” the report states.
In the report, one child says: “I did not report it, because I was afraid. My mom had warned me not to communicate with people I do not know on social media, so I was afraid she would criticise me for doing that.”
Disrupting Harm in Namibia revealed that more girls than boys received unwanted requests for a photo showing their private parts, were more often offered money or gifts in return for sexual images or videos, and were more often subjected to sexual comments that made them feel uncomfortable in the past year.
The research found that boys risk being left behind when trying to access support services after experiencing online sexual abuse.
One of the minor survivors of sexual exploitation in the report says everything started when she opened accounts on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.
“When I got a Facebook account, a very good-looking guy started following me. He sent me a message on Facebook, and then we started to chat,” she says.
The girl says after about a month of chatting the man asked her out and asked her for nude pictures.
“I was scared because it was my first relationship. But I just said yes, because I liked him a lot and I was 14 going on 15 years old. He asked me for nude pictures, and kept on forcing me,” she says.
“He threatened me and said if I don’t send him nudes, he was going to break up with me and forget about me. So I sent him completely naked photos of myself,” she says.
The girl says the man then started threatening that he would expose her on social media.
“’I will post those nude pictures you sent me. I will post them all on Instagram and on Facebook and on TikTok, and I will also share them on my WhatsApp, he told me. I begged him, ‘please don’t do that to me’. All he said was ‘no, it’s too late, I already did that’,” she says.
WHAT ABOUT BOYS?
A frontline worker in the report says: “More girls report [exploitation] than boys. Lately the attention on boys is lagging, as most programmes focus on girls.”
According to the report, 80% of online sexual abuse and exploitation offenders were someone the child already knew. Another young survivor in the report describes how she met someone on a website when she was 18, and subsequently started chatting with him on WhatsApp, where they exchanged pictures.
The man made her feel safe and gave her many compliments, she says.
“I started sending videos of my upper area, me doing stuff, and he made me feel comfortable until we finally met physically.
“When we met it was like the person I was chatting with online, the caring person, the loving person, the affectionate person was not the same,” she says.
‘CONSTANTLY EVOLVING’
Executive director of gender equality, poverty eradication, and social welfare Esther Lusepani says online sexual exploitation and abuse of children is a problem in all countries.
These crimes are constantly evolving and are often underreported, she says.
“Not only in Namibia, but globally, there is a gap in our knowledge regarding these forms of violence against children. High-quality evidence needs to be central in shaping how we address these harms to children,” she says.
“An important step has been the establishment of the Namibian National Child Online Protection Task Force in 2017, and initiating several successful awareness-raising efforts, such as Safer Internet Day and the #BeFree campaign.
“These efforts have been essential in bringing together crucial stakeholders to address the issue, but also in shifting this topic into the public eye,” she says.
“Parents have the responsibility to educate children about sexual exposure online. With financial support, civil society and other groups and individuals can fill the gap, but without local funding for this it becomes challenging,” she says.
Nashilongo says information and communications technology (ICT) literacy skills are urgently needed by all stakeholders.
“Making such education compulsory would be a great start,” she says.
