CTEC 1905 Law Component Essay Sample
Module code and Title: CTEC 1905 Law Component Essay Sample
Introduction
Online abuse can be done through social media, emails, text messages, or messaging apps. Online gaming, online chats or live streaming sites. Online abuse is a type of abuse that can happen over the internet and with the growing use of the internet in recent years; the number of online child abuse cases has increased over the years.
The cases of online abuse can be of varying types such as emotional abuse cyber bullying, grooming, sexual abuse, sexting or exploitation of a child. The cases of online abuse can arise when a child spends more time on the internet that is gaming or texting or using social media platforms. The present study focuses on the investigation and prosecution of online child abuse.
Discussion
Online child abuse is such a form of abuse, which happens virtually, and the government of the UK has expressed strong concern over the rise in the number of child abuse cases in the country. The rise in the use of the internet especially during the pandemic has increased the number of online child abuse cases all over the world. According to UNICEF, children need to protect from any kind of violence and exploitation on the internet (unicef.org, 2022).
Through the cyber bullying, the children can expose to risks, which can compromise their healthy development. The embracing of digital platforms by the children has created concern in countries such as UK and Australia. In the country, the UK 450 users of the child abuse platform were arrested by the National Crime Agency (nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk).
Recently, the National Crime Agency launched an operation to analyse the data for the investigation and enforcement of law within the country. The investigation conducted by the agency showed the rise in the number of child abuse cases which led to various issues. The investigation conducted with Regional Organised Crime units (ROCUs) shows that there is a variety of child sexual abuses (nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk).
The agency arrested Robert Stanley in the year 2020 April which the person shared videos of sexually abusing an eight-year-old girl. The screenshot received from the accused phone showed signs of kidnapping and keeping the child as a “sex slave”. In the month of August, the agency also arrested an individual named Steven Skelton who has sent sexual messages to a thirteen-year-old girl. According to the National Crime Agency, most of the incidents occurred during the lockdown when the majority of the young minds stayed and home.
In May 2020, the National Crime Agency arrested Akaash and Nadeen Hussian the two brothers from Sheffield for keeping indecent images of children. The agency has gained intelligence from Newzealand and on further investigation concluded that the two brothers planned to flee the country after abusing the children virtually.
The police agency has concluded that the child offers mostly work in trustworthy positions and children are finding it hard to identify the offenders. The country, therefore, has focused on identifying and safeguarding the children, who are vulnerable. The government focused on providing justice with a protocol between the Crown Prosecution Service, and Police with the Local Authorities. The aim and objectives of the protocol are to provide a framework based on an agreement, which requires the process of sharing relevant information regarding child protection investigation (cps.gov.uk, 2022).
The protocol focuses on the objectives of protecting the welfare of children through the method of investigation and prosecution of offenders and applying the criminal justice system. The legal framework focuses on meeting legal obligations under Annex A. the procedure focuses on police investigation within Social Services and Education files and the Local Authority will notify. The schools and other organizations need to involve themselves in the care of their stunts and children regarding trials. In the UK, Annex A focuses on providing a legal framework for safeguarding the rights of children and is recognised by the courts.
The Common law Of Confidentiality arises in which personal information about the children and their families not disclosed by the investigation agencies (nspcc.org.uk, 2022). The Data Protection Act of 1998 allows the local authorities to disclose confidential material for criminal proceedings. Data Protection Act of 1998 focuses on providing security to the families and also helping the victims by providing them with facts regarding the cases. The government of both nations support the families to act and help the victim to return to a normal healthy environment.
According to NSPCC, the number of counselling for Online child abuse cases reached its height as police recorded over 10,000 online child crimes in the year 2020 (nspcc.org.uk, 2022).
According to the views of Quayle and Koukopoulos (2019), the rise in the number of child abuse cases can increase mental health issues, self-harm or suicide as well as an exhibition of abusive behaviours in their adulthood. In the year 2021, the Internet Watch Foundation focuses on issues of young children who targeted on an “industrial scale”. The IWF stress the fact that child online abuse has resulted among children aged 11 to 13 years.
The House of Commons has issued a major concern regarding the number of child abuses cases and imposed a duty of care on tech firms to protect children (theguardian.com, 2022). The government of the UK has also launched a campaign “Stop Abuse Together” to help the parents to spot signs of abuse and combat the incident of online abuse. The government has also focused to appoint regional coordinators of schools to “facilitate self-assessments” (bbc.com, 2022).
In the country of Australia, similar cases of child online abuse have also found and the country has seen a rise in the number of cases. In the country, more than 100 Australians charged with child abuse related offences (abc.net.au, 2022). A joint investigation between the international authorities and the Australian agencies showed that 153 children in multiple countries faced abuse and 51 of them were from Australia.
The country launched Operation H, which knows locally as Operation Molto in the year 2019 in which 1,248 people were charged with the criminal mindset of harming the children virtually. The investigation was led by the Australian Federal Police’ Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation. The police received intelligence from various places, which shows that a cloud storage platform created to share child abuse material virtually. During the investigation, the police agency found that the abusers were aged between 18 to 61 years. The police arrested 12 from the South Australian region, 185 in Victorian and the list goes on (afp.gov.au, 2022).
The offenders can easily groom the children therefore, it is crucial to understand signs of unwanted contact. Online child abuse traces the issues of a family’s privacy on the internet. The Western Australian police also formed a joint Anti Child Exploitation Team (WA JACET) and arrested a 55-year-old man for illegally circulating videos and well as records for child abuse materials. The man was charged with section 474.22A (1) of the Criminal Code 1995 for possession of illegal child abuse material (afp.gov.au, 2022).
In addition to that, the man was charged with section 474.22 (II) of the Criminal Case of 1995 for transmitting materials. The AFP has focused on collaborating with various agencies to stop the cases of child abuse and the ACCCE implemented a collaborative approach (afp.gov.au, 2022). The ACCCE has divides prevention strategies to cater for a safe and healthy virtual environment for the children of various age groups.
The Victorian Police has focused on closely monitoring child abuse cases and protecting children. Unicef has also launched various initiatives such as Disrupting Harm projects and Global Kids Online to mitigate the number of risks that arise during the pandemic. The government of both the nations has focused on implementing rules for using digital technologies for children. The countries have focused on supporting the WePROTECT GLOBAL Alliance Model by UNICEF to safeguard the rights of the children (unicef.org, 2022).
The NSPCC has also forced the government to plan for the imposition of the Online Safety Bill to respond to the problems and “scale and nature of the child abuse problem”. The police agencies of both nations found that the criminals target the children as commodities and focus on abusing them. The investigation conducted by other intelligence agencies stresses the fact that the viewing and distributing of child abuse materials is a horrific crime.
The rise in the number of online abuse cases has created a notion of keeping the patients aware of their children’s activities. Both governments have prioritised the need of protecting children from online attackers. The Northern Ireland Executive stresses the fact that children’s safety needs to be taken seriously by the government and the patents and strategy need to be implemented as some cases are “ under reported and misunderstood”.
The parents need to focus on their children’s internet activities so that they do not fall under the traps of abusers (nspcc.org.uk, 2022). Many children remain unaware of exploited digitally. Active involvement of the parents can be helpful in understanding the nature of abuse and timely reporting of the nature of abuse can help in smooth investigation of the process.
Condition of child abuse
Child abuse is a burning topic in the modern world. It is a concept that various countries saw for a long time in the earlier period of society. However, the issue is still in discussion as various abuses of children take place even in the modern era.
As stated by Bauer et al. (2021), complete and authentic statistics are not always present in different countries and the lack of data often creates more and more abuse as it fails to depict the current grave condition of the children in the countries. Data shows that every adult of the age group of 18-74 living in the UK conveyed that the individuals faced child abuse or child crime at least once in their lifetime.
Both physical, as well as emotional abuse is part of these crimes against children in the UK. Sexual abuse and domestic violence are also part of child crimes and these crimes contributed to the overall degradation of the country UK in terms of child crimes. Children faced these crimes before their age crossed 16 and therefore, they fell into the category of children when they faced these abuses (Chiang and Grant, 2019). Data also shows that one in e 100 adults faced physical neglect largely before they became 17.
Almost 481,000 people in the UK faced these crimes as children and this shows the country lacks proper care for the children within the country. Observations also show that children faced a lack of shelter, food and clothing within the country and this depicts that the country shows poor performance in terms of childcare. These abuses also took place online.
As informed by De Santisteban et al. (2018), 3.1 million adults conveyed that they faced sexual abuse during their childhood and this shows that the country needs to reinforce and modify their laws to implement various measures to stop child abuse in the country. Children stated that both child and adult perpetrators abused them in the country. Female children in the country faced more abuse than those male children within the country based on data. Numerous cases remain hidden as child abuse cases.
This also shows the poor condition of the country regarding the protection of the children in this country (Mhizha et al. 2018). However, physical abuse was the same for both male and female children in the UK. 227,530 reports about child abuse cases were present in March in the year 2019. 45% of these records were of sexual abuse of children. Therefore, the condition of the country is downright worrisome.
Reports show that the country did 19,847 counselling sessions for the children because mental trauma affected their health of the children. These accidents adversely affect the mental health of the children of this country and thereby affect their regular lives as well. This results in the rise of counselling sessions within the UK. As told by Michelle et al. (2018), the country devised a “child protection plan” for 52,260 children, which portray the grave condition of the children of the country.
The country also created a “child protection register” in which 2820 children from Wales participated. However, the online abuses generally took place using the mediums such as social media, online chats, emails, online gaming, messaging apps and text messages and sites of live streaming. As the pandemic situation thwarted children from the usage of online sites and social media sites for continuing their education and following recreational activities while remaining at home.
More than 10,000 online sex crimes occurred within a year in the UK. 10,391 child crimes happened in the country between the years 2019 and 2020. Sexual assault, rape and grooming were also part of these abuses and child crimes. The increase in child crimes is 16% in the present year and it shows that the number of child crimes is increasing rapidly over the years in this country. The total records related to internet abuses rose to over 37 thousand in the present years within this country (Mount et al. 2021).
Research shows that the lockdown period increased the overall number of child crimes over the internet. A major cause of this was the pandemic situation. This situation compelled children to remain in their houses and to practise the social distancing guidelines set by the government of the countries. This also compelled them to become addicted to online sites.
Online gaming and chatting apps to pass their leisure time. It also states that the country needs to strengthen their law systems to stop child abuse and child crimes within the country. On the other hand, child abuse in Australia also rose considerably in the past few years. 21.7 million Children in Australia faced child abuse within the country in the year 2020.
This figure was 16.9 million in 2019. Various video chat services created and enhanced child abuse activities and crimes within Australia. This shows this country also needs to focus on their childcare systems to improve the overall protective laws of its children. The Australian government recorded 14,000 reports of online molestations of children in 2019. In 2020, these reports increased to 21,000. This huge increase shows the poor state of the country.
Conclusion
This study shows that child crimes are increasing day by day. Online platforms increase the chance of child abuse within the countries UK and Australia. It also states that both countries show a high rate of child crime reports. Data and facts prove the same for both these countries. The condition of the UK is far worse than the condition of Australia.
This study suggests that both the countries need to update and amend their present child protection laws and measures to improve their overall condition in the present years. Data and facts are important to understand properly the extent of child abuse in various countries and to take effective measures to stop or reduce child abuse and child crimes largely.
Reference List
abc.net.au, 2022. More than 100 Australians charged with child abuse-related offences as part of global police operation Available from: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-02/police-arrest-117-australian-men-over-child-abuse-material/100874278 [ Accessed on : 26th April 2022]
afp.gov.au, 2022. WA man charged over alleged online child abuse offences Available from: https://www.afp.gov.au/news-media/media-releases/wa-man-charged-over-alleged-online-child-abuse-offences [ Accessed on : 26th April 2022]
Bauer, A., Hammerton, G., Fraser, A., Fairchild, G. and Halligan, S.L., 2021. Associations Between Developmental Timing Of Child Abuse And Conduct Problem Trajectories In A Uk Birth Cohort. Bmc Psychiatry, 21, Pp. 1-13.
bbc.com, 2022. Reports of online child sexual abuse in NI rise by 80% Available from: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-59161570 [ Accessed on : 26th April 2022]
Chiang, E. and Grant, T., 2019. Deceptive identity performance: Offender moves and multiple identities in online child abuse conversations. Applied Linguistics, 40(4), pp.675-698.
cps.gov.uk, 2022. Investigation And Prosecution Of Child Abuse Cases Available from: https://www.cps.gov.uk/publication/investigation-and-prosecution-child-abuse-cases [ Accessed on : 26th April 2022]
De Santisteban, P., Del Hoyo, J., Alcázar-Córcoles, M.Á. and Gámez-Guadix, M., 2018. Progression, maintenance, and feedback of online child sexual grooming: A qualitative analysis of online predators. Child Abuse & Neglect, 80, pp.203-215.
Mhizha, S., Chiroro, P. and Muromo, T., 2018. The Rise In Street Children Population In Zimbabwe As A Case Of Human Factor Decay. Review Of Human Factor Studies, 24(1), Pp. 24-45.
Michelle, D.E., J.T., Humphreys, D.K. and Bowes, L., 2018. Icovert: A Rich Data Source On The Incidence Of Child Maltreatment Over Time In England And Wales. Plos One, 13(8).
Mount, D., Mazerolle, L., Zahnow, R. and James, L., 2021. Triaging online child abuse material: testing a decision support tool to enhance law enforcement and investigative prioritisation. Policing: An International Journal.
nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk , 2022. 450 users of child abuse platform arrested in the UK Available from: https://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/news/450-users-of-child-abuse-platform-arrested-in-the-uk [ Accessed on : 26th April 2022]
nspcc.org.uk, 2022. Police record over 10,000 online child sex crimes in a year for the first time Available from: https://www.nspcc.org.uk/about-us/news-opinion/2020/2020-09-03-cybercrimes-during-lockdown/ [ Accessed on : 26th April 2022]
nspcc.org.uk, 2022. what-is-child-abuse/ Available from: https://www.nspcc.org.uk/what-is-child-abuse/types-of-abuse/online-abuse/ [ Accessed on : 26th April 2022]
Quayle, E. and Koukopoulos, N., 2019. Deterrence of online child sexual abuse and exploitation. Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice, 13(3), pp.345-362.
theguardian.com, 2022. 2021 was worst year on record for online child sexual abuse, says IWF Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/jan/13/2021-was-worst-year-on-record-for-online-child-sex-abuse-says-iwf [ Accessed on : 26th April 2022]
unicef.org, 2022. Protecting children online Available from: https://www.unicef.org/protection/violence-against-children-online [ Accessed on : 26th April 2022]
Know more about UniqueSubmission’s other writing services:
