Authorities are urging parents and guardians to protect their children from online sexual predators, as cases of cyber exploitation and abuse continue to rise.
With increased internet access and social media use among children, experts warn that online predators are using deceptive tactics to manipulate and exploit minors. Many cases go unreported, leaving children vulnerable to lasting psychological and emotional harm.
Cybersecurity officials advise parents to closely monitor their children’s internet usage, activate parental controls, and have open conversations about online safety.
In Ghana, in a bid to protect children and young people from online sexual predators, the country enacted the Cyber Security Act 2020 (Act 1038).
Speaking on the prevalence of online sexual predators on Joy News, Managing Partner at B & P Associates, Adelaide Benneh Prempeh outlined how children and young people are more likely to fall prey to sexual predators.
According to her, children are impressionable, and at that young age they are keen to impress thereby inviting predators onto their digital devices for instance through friend requests they may come across.
“So, it’s a very innocent gesture that leads you deep down a rabbit hole with a perpetrator totally in control of your life, making demands where you can’t see yourself stopping” she said.
“So that’s sextortion in a nutshell. You are threatened to produce sexually explicit images of yourself or indeed threatened further to do even more sexual favours or otherwise if you don’t meet the demands of payment or money and the like.”
Adelaide Benneh Prempeh advised parents to have stranger danger conversations with their children with emphasis on education on how sophisticated strangers may be.
She especially asked parents to ensure children limit sharing personal information online, and with close friends, cautioning their interactions with strangers online as well.
Forms of Sextortion
Senior Manager at the Child Online Protection Department at the Cyber Security Authority, Nelson Herald Darko noted there are two forms of sextortion in connection to children; cyber grooming and sexting.
He emphasized that cyber grooming leads to sextortion when predators create fake online profiles to lure children, build intimacy and solicit nude photos or videos which they use in blackmailing the children or their parents for money.
Mr. Darko stressed that Sexting (sharing self-generated sexual content), also increases the risk of sextortion if the phone is hacked or pictures are shared with untrustworthy partners who then disseminate the images and blackmail the victim.
To prevent the children from being exposed, Mr. Darko reiterated the need for parents to ensure their wards stay safe by limiting the sharing of personal information, avoid meeting online contacts in person, carefully screen friend requests, recognize unreliable information and tell a trusted adult if they feel unsafe.
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Source: Afote Asomdwoe Laryea/ATLFMNEWS
