Rate of Child Sexual Exploitation in Pacific ‘Appalling’: Report
New research into child sexual exploitation in the Pacific reaffirms that children are most often sexually exploited by people they know. The survey by the child protection agency ECPAT International shows perpetrators are most likely to be family members or a close family friend.
It was a small study, but showed children were being abused for profit at an appalling rate, according to the director of ECPAT International New Zealand, Eleanor Parkes.
“We saw again and again in this research that more often it’s not a “stranger-danger” situation. “More often it is coming from someone that is known to the child so a family member or a close family friend,” she said. Researchers surveyed 84 welfare workers in Fiji, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Tonga, Samoa and Kiribati. Eighty percent of them had managed cases of child sexual exploitation in the past year.
“It’s sexual abuse that has a particular commercial aspect to it, so there’s someone profiting from that abuse,” Ms Parkes said. Factors impacting on children’s vulnerability include poverty, religious beliefs, culture and shortcomings
in the justice sector.
Increasing access to the internet and technology in the Pacific was making children more vulnerable to sexual exploitation, the study found.
The lack of awareness about where the offence lies when it comes to technology was concerning, Ms Parkes said.
“People know that it’s illegal to take photos or videos of child sexual abuse but there was much less awareness around the fact that the third party, that person who watches the videos or accesses those images, are also committing an offence and that’s on the increase as well,” she said.