CAUTION NEEDED: With children spending ever more time on the Internet, perpetrators are increasingly tricking them into sharing intimate photos and videos

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 06, 2020
By: Ho Yu-hua and Dennis Xie / Staff reporter, with staff writer

The New Taipei City Government on Monday called on parents to pay more attention to their children’s Internet use, citing rising cases of online sexual exploitation that have been reported in the past few months, with the youngest victim aged only nine.

During summer vacation, many children spend time playing smartphone games while their parents are at work, and some of them have fallen victim to online sexual exploitation, Violence and Sexual Assault Prevention Center Director Hsu Chih-chi (許芝綺) said.

As of the end of May, the city government had received 87 reports of such cases this year, most of which involved “filming a child or young person engaging in sexual intercourse or obscene acts, or producing pictures, photographs, videos or other files that show a child or young person engaging in sexual intercourse or obscene acts,” Hsu said.

The city government received 48 such reports in 2017, 39 in 2018 and 139 last year, she added.    [FULL  STORY]