International Conference by West Bengal Child Rights Commission

Team IJM
January 25, 2019

DAY 1
The West Bengal Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (WBCPCR) organised a two-day International Conference on “Sexual Exploitation of Children in a Digital Era” in Kolkata at the Biswa Bangla Convention Centre on 14th and 15th December, 2018. IJM was honoured to support the event as a knowledge partner.

International delegates from 15 countries. Experts from varied domains shared their learnings and recommendations. The corporate representatives included Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Deloitte India, PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) and Facebook. Among the panellists and participants were Chairpersons of Child Commissions, members of the judiciary, state government, senior police officials, civil society organisations, academics, schools and the media. The conference was a first-of-its-kind event which discussed the modus operandi criminals employed to exploit children.

The following themes were touched upon the following sessions:

TRENDS

The Dark Side of Technology

  • Online sexual exploitation of children is growing into a transnational crime
  • The modus operandi of trackers and criminals is becoming unpredictable
  • Networks of criminals continue to expand and broaden
  • Multi-layered nature of dark web crimes impedes law enforcement investigations
  • Exponential growth of online exploitation of children given insufficient current legal provisions

CHALLENGES
Road blocks faced by the Criminal Justice System

  • Push and pull factors, lack of income and social security
  • Online sexual exploitation of children – the new normal- impedes reporting behaviour
  • Organized and transnational nature of the crime hinders process of identification, acquisition, preservation, analysis and documentation of digital evidence
  • Awareness programs have limited reach to rural areas which are the source areas.
  • Uncharted knowledge on psychological rehabilitation of victims facing online exploitation

DAY 2: BRIDGES
Networks that end Impunity

  • Cyber security community needs to generate awareness on this issue
  • Capacity building and skill upgradation of law enforcement is the key to combat online exploitation of children.
  • Regional rerouting of traffic to enable law enforcement to address transnational crimes
  • Involvement of global stakeholders in combatting online sexual exploitation

SOLUTIONS
Generating Ideas/ Recommendations for Governing Bodies

  • Gaming platforms could aid prevention of children from online exploitation
  • Active collaboration between criminal justice system and key stakeholders is the need of the hour to combat online sexual exploitation of children
  • Existing schemes for survivors of trafficking need to be reviewed
  • Protection of children from online exploitation is a global responsibility
  • Children’s voices can be leveraged to better address the crime
  • Government involvement is key to resolve this crime