KOCHI: Police Cyberdome team and technical experts assisting them have been monitoring online activities as part of Op P-Hunt for the last three years. Still, online child sexual abuse content has spiked since lockdown, with families staying home and children getting easy access to the internet more. Experts call for strict parental monitoring and also recommend diverting kids’ interests to more useful and healthier activities
The lack of free movement owing to the lockdown restrictions has led to an increase in internet usage, giving opportunities to paedophiles and other subscribers of child pornography. This leads to child sexual abuse and also an increase in sharing of child exploitation material through peer-to-peer groups. To identify and book the culprits, Kerala Police along with the help of Cyberdome and technical experts have been on Operation P-Hunt over the past three years.
With the spike in online crimes against children, the police have intensified the vigil and more raids are being carried out across the state. Recently, raids were carried out under the district SPs in different parts of the state as part of operation P-Hunt 21.1. The team has registered 370 cases and seized 429 devices including mobile phones, laptops, memory cards, and hard disks.
Based on the recovery of the devices with the child sexual abuse material (CSAM), 28 arrests were made. The police’s CCSE (Countering Child Sexual Exploitation) team, which functions under the Cyberdome, has been keeping a tab on online crimes against children and identifying the culprits. In the past three years, 1,007 cases have been registered and more than 465 accused were arrested.
“Internet usage has increased considerably over the last one year since people are mostly confined to their homes owing to the pandemic. This has increased the exploitation of children online. Understanding the gravity of the problem, we have been carrying out various operations to identify the culprits. Apart from the state police’s CCSE team, Interpol’s International Child Sexual Exploitation (ICSE) database has also been helping the officials locate the victims and exchange information with the investigators,” said Bijumon E S, additional SP, Hi-Tech Crime Inquiry Cell, Police Headquarters.
EFFECTS ON MENTAL HEALTH
Dr Sheena G Soman, consultant psychiatrist, Mental Health Centre, Thiruvananthapuram, said, “The teenagers who are addicted to pornography often are prone to committing crimes. Now, since there is more internet usage among teenagers due to the pandemic, many are addicted to child pornography. If there is severe porn addiction, the person needs treatment as he/she might show abnormal characteristics such as sadism, sexual coercion or sexual gratification.” Dr Sheena also pointed out that the lack of parental supervision is also a reason for increasing incidents of youngsters watching pornographic content on websites and committing sexual crimes. “The activities of teenagers need to be monitored — especially at a time when online learning has taken the centre stage,” said Dr Sheena.
IDENTIFYING PREDATORS
The cyber cell official also said to identify the persons downloading and uploading CSAM material from the internet, IP addresses of users are being collected using specialised software. “The information is then passed onto the 310 teams under the District Police Chiefs which include members of the cyber cell and technical experts who conduct the raids,” said Bijumon. Technical expertise and resources are also being provided by the India Child Protection Fund (ICPF) which helps in detecting online crimes against children.
ANONYMITY IS THE VILLAIN
Highlighting the increasing number of child exploitation and pornography on the net, the anti-cybercrime official also said the culprits are coming up with better tools of anonymity which makes it difficult to nab them easily. Besides downloading content from the internet, there is a rising trend in the porn groups formed on WhatsApp and Telegram, especially during the pandemic period. Often, the accused are IT employees, students and other professionals. While some download and delete the video
after viewing, others activate the webcams of the victims using malware and steal the information of the victim. Cybersecurity expert and Data Security Council of India member Manu P Zachariah said child sexual abuse material is being widely shared through peer-to-peer groups in the state.
“Though we do not have effective tools in detecting the culprits accessing dark web networks, the state has been successful in identifying the culprits and keeping a check on child sexual abuse material circulated online. However, more awareness needs to be created regarding it through social media platforms,” he said. How the dark web operates outside the rules of the internet has also become a hurdle to law enforcement.