More children remained at risk of online sexual abuse and exploitation in Pakistan during the Covid-19 pandemic because of restrictions in their movement due to lockdowns and their excessive exposure to internet.
The trend of consuming and sharing and transmitting child sexual abuse contents was predominantly observed in Pakistan. Fifty-eight (58) First Information Reports (FIRs) were registered regarding online children exploitation in 2021. Acting on the report, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) arrested 72 accused, sources in the agency told Bol News.
During 2020, 24 such FIRs were registered and 28 accused were arrested under the same charges. The number of the FIRs and the number of accused arrested during 2021 are more than twice when compared with the statistics of 2020.
According to the sources, courts also convicted five people for child pornography convictions in 2021.
“After the outbreak of the pandemic, there has been a rising trend of online child exploitation in Pakistan,” said an FIA official while requesting anonymity. He said more sexual content with regard to the children was shared in 2021.
Sources in the Cyber Crime Wing of the FIA said most of the cases were reported from cities including Peshawar, Karachi and Quetta. The children who became victims of online abuse were between the age of 10 to 15. They said 70% of these victims were boys and only 30% of them were girls.
Restrictions due to Covid-19 were the main reason behind this massive surge in crimes against children. The schools were closed and the children were supposed to get online education across Pakistan especially during the last year.
Most of these cases were reported from Peshawar followed by Karachi. The FIA also made arrests of culprits who were wanted internationally with regard to child pornography.
The sources said the FIA was informed by Google that a person named as Jameel Khan was involved in child pornography. He was arrested on October 28, 2020.
Jameel illegally created, administered and operated groups on Facebook and WhatsApp for the sole purpose of obtaining, sharing, consuming, possessing and disseminating pornographic and sexually explicit videos/pictures of minors.
He used to disseminate, transmit, upload, share and upload sexually explicit videos and pictures of minors publicly on social media.
The relevant officers in the FIA said when they investigated the matter they learnt that Jameel went through a personal trauma as a kid and he was sexually exploited. They said it was very disturbing to find out that there was a tendency of this crime in the area of Chaklala where Jameel lived.
Jameel while abusing some kids used to make videos which he later shared on some social media platforms. Jameel, who was arrested along with three other persons, was also blackmailing a victim into bringing his cousin to him. The case of Jameel is being heard in the court of law in Islamabad.
In most cases, the accused persons were between 20 to 22 years old. In another case, the FIA apprehended an impotent person involved in sexual exploitation of children through social media.
They said the accused Awais Tariq used to trap children for exploiting them sexually. He had two IDs on a social media platform which he used for trapping young lads. One of his IDs was that of a girl which he used to seduce the teenagers and later he used it to get nude videos/pictures of them.
Through another ID which he had in the name of a male person, he used to blackmail the kids on the basis of those nude pictures or videos. The accused used to sexually exploit these kids while using the nude pictures as a blackmailing tool.
According to the FIA, he was attempting to seduce a boy for one more time but the kid was not willing.
The accused threatened the child that he would upload his nudes on social media if he did not come to him. The accused had also demanded Rs150,000 from him. The FIA registered a case against him last year and now Awais Tariq is facing trial in a court of law.
Talking with Bol News, Islamabad High Court Bar President Zahid Mahmood Raja said amendments related with cybercrimes are needed for speedy trial and cases related to child pornography should be adjudicated in six months.
He said the government should introduce stricter punishments for these crimes as deterrence. He said offences against a child put the entire family in trauma and such culprits should be made an example of.
“Children are innocent and crimes against them cannot be tolerated at any cost. Punishment should be used as deterrence so that people refrain from committing such crimes.”
He said going to jail has become sort of a fashion these days. Most importantly, delay in trial is the main reason behind rise in crime rate in Pakistan, especially online exploitation. He said online offences are easy to be traced out thanks to the latest available gadgets.
According to him, cases related to children should be dealt with on priority in order to stop the rising online offences especially the crimes which are committed against the children. “Provisions should be made in the law to hold a magistrate answerable if he does not decide a case in six months,” he said.
