Express article from March
Sex predator network...Child porn, explicit images of young women being sharedSex predators in Trinidad and Tobago have formed more than 100 networking groups through which child pornography and thousands of explicit images of young women are being shared amongst themselves.
The groups have been created and recreated by abusers on various online platforms such as WhatsApp, Twitter, Telegram, MeWe and Discord for the purpose of distributing intimate images and videos of children and young women.
And the number of these groups has doubled since 2020.
Groups titled “No limit teens”, “Young girls’ videos”, “active leaks, active nudes” and “Trinidad Candid Creepshots” were shared with the Sunday Express.
Within these groups explicit videos of children and young women stored on multiple Google Drives and one drive folder are being shared, according to the Humanitarian Foundation for Positive Social Change, a local NGO that has infiltrated a number of these groups using a Samsung A70 device since 2020.
Images and videos of child pornography are designated as “box-lunch” or “trini-porn” and are available to the public, according to foundation members, who asked anonymity for fear of being targeted.
Footage showing schoolchildren in Trinidad and Tobago undressing themselves, videos and images of a female pupil dressed in school uniform performing oral sex on a male pupil, also dressed in school uniform, and a full video of two adults engaging in sex acts in the presence of a child are among a number of disturbing-content videos being circulated within these groups.
Some groups, including the “Candid Creepshots” group, are also uploading photos of random women on the nation’s streets, taking up-skirt photos and sharing these among themselves.
Photographs of the faces, chests and buttocks of teens and women using public transportation, in stores, or walking have been sexualised in these forums.
Polls taken within the group ask members the ways in which the victims should be sexualised.
Plans within this particular group have been made to carry out a similar exercise with photos of children in uniform called “high school candid”.
Recordings of these interactions were shared with the Sunday Express. In examining the screenshots sent by the foundation, the Sunday Express found that people engaging in these groups were sharing images of the social media profiles of unwitting young women, asking for exchanges or trades, or whether other members possessed explicit content generated from them.
And among other things found by the foundation within these groups are advertisements of Venezuelan women engaging in sex acts with accompanying contacts, sexual videos and images of female prisoners in prison and sexual images and videos showing gang sexual activity with women.
“It is unclear if the woman consented to the said activity with multiple partners. However, it is being shared in a manner to ridicule the woman, for sexual gratification and for exploitation purposes (financial gain),” it said.
According to the foundation, these groups operate daily and prey on teenagers under the age of 18.
Some groups, it said, have been operating since 2016.
The number of perpetrators are in the thousands, the group estimates. One profile attached to one of these groups depicted himself as a police officer, in one photo dressed in what appeared to be Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS)-branded attire, and in another holding a weapon.
The foundation last week responded to the Sunday Express’ expose on the prevalence of child grooming perpetrated by adult men on social media platforms.
In a matter of hours, the fake profile of 15-year-old Selina Ali created by the Sunday Express was met with hundreds of messages from adult men that ranged from disturbing to odd.
The fake profile had been subjected to explicit imagery from one adult male who claimed to be a plumber, at least one photo of self-harm, and a number of others attempting to meet with the child, incur information about her whereabouts and family life, or call or video-chat with her.
“U like it, U like it, U want to see the next one, How is ur butt small or big, Show urs too,” wrote the 22-year-old man after sharing a nude photo of himself with the profile.
Group chairman, 25-year-old lawyer Samira Sooklal told the Sunday Express last week that our attempt had accurately depicted the reality of child grooming online.
A report compiled by the group last week noted that in addition to the prevalence of child pornography, members of these groups had also engaged in an aspect of grooming and predatory behaviour towards children.
Some, it said, had harvested data on children through social media, sharing usernames, locations and identifying details with one another.
No police reactionBut according to the foundation, reports made by victims to the TTPS were met with little to no response.
“Based on our organisation’s research and discoveries, these online pornography rings have been in existence from as early as the year 2016, and were reported by various teenagers and university students to the police throughout the years.”
“Many victims have expressed that their reports were ignored, and they did not receive citizens’ receipts. Some who successfully made reports got no update on any investigation being conducted,” the group said last week.
Without a local police-initiated investigation into the matter, the group says it has since been advocating for the TTPS’ involvement between October 2021 and August 2022.
Twenty-five victims of these online pornography rings (ranging from 19 to 28 years old) were assisted, it said, with six victims of child pornography having made police statements.
In its report to the Sunday Express, the foundation said that with a delay of the passing of the Cybercrime Bill (2017) and Sexual Voyeurism (Sexual Offences (Amendment) (No 3) Bill (2021), victims were unprotected by local criminal laws and, as a result, were left to seek redress through civil action.
“Victims have indicated that they are consistently stalked, harassed and blackmailed as a result of these online rings or online sex trade, and some live in continuous fear for their safety and are traumatised and/or re-traumatised by their daily victimisation. Police officers also refuse to investigate matters which are not accounted for in criminal legislation and have expressly indicated the same to our organisation,” the group said.
The TTPS Cybercrime Unit, it said, currently lacks the technology required to investigate such matters.
However, even without appropriate technological support, the foundation added, investigations into these issues were not impossible.
“The individual testimonials and the evidence of victims who come forward are sufficient to start a criminal matter before the courts with respect to offence of child pornography under the Children Act (Chap 46:01). The TTPS can apply for warrants to obtain certain evidence on certain social media accounts and group chats from the different social media companies.
“The TTPS can request assistance from other police departments in the countries where the social media companies were incorporated. The TTPS can establish a task force and perform ‘sting operations’ to investigate the phenomena themselves,” it said.
TTPS in need of investmentSpeaking with the Sunday Express last week, attorney and chairman of the Caribbean Community Against Sex Crimes Jonathan Bhagan said no studies on sexual grooming or human trafficking have taken place in Trinidad and Tobago.
Despite this, he said given the Caribbean’s high rape rates, the phenomenon of child online grooming was likely rampant.
Bhagan said the TTPS was in need of “significant” investments for technical skills to aid in dealing with issues of child sexual abuse online.
He said he had previously recommended a foreign consultant which could assist the Police Service in its technical endeavours to Cabinet ministers within the current administration.
However, he said the offer was refused.
In addition, he had previously advocated for the development of a global sex offender registry that did not receive support from the Government, he said.
“The TTPS cannot even manage its database effectively as the AFIS/Certificate of Character system crashes regularly. I offered Cabinet ministers in the PNM to bring in a foreign consultant in the form of a US-based company to assist the TTPS, but this offer was refused.
“I also pioneered a project that could reduce sexual grooming online for the whole world if implemented in partner countries, but have not gotten support from the sitting government. It is called the global sex offenders registry and was featured on Fox News in 2020, it would monitor registered sex offenders on social media so that if an American sex offender messages a T&T child on Snapchat, the communication can be monitored,” he said.
In T&T, the online Sex Offenders Registry went live in February.
It names 16 men, and gives the details of their crime, age, location and aliases.
Humanitarian Foundation working to make a differenceThe Humanitarian Foundation for Positive Social Change comprises various professionals in the fields of law, business, IT and social work who have come together to make a difference in the local community.
In its report sent to the Sunday Express last week, the foundation stated its aims as the addressing of and advocating against gender-based violence (GBV).
It has a designated social work department, as well as a legal aid clinic that offers social support and subsidised legal services to clients.
Having helped dozens, the group says it works directly alongside the National Domestic Violence Unit, the Judiciary’s Domestic Violence Response Unit, and the Child Protection and Gender-Based Violence Unit of the TTPS.
“So far, we have assisted various families, including children and women in need in our community. We have built an international connection with an organisation in the United Kingdom, FiLiA (a woman-led volunteer organisation) where we consistently contribute to various discussions on women and child rights around the world,” it said.
“We are also a part of a Caribbean and Latin America committee of organisations for Meta Platforms Inc (Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp) wherein we directly communicate with policy makers and regional managers of the company to enforce community guidelines in online abuse situations that occur locally and regionally. We are also directly able to directly request certain reports and information from Meta pertaining to such situations,” said the foundation.
Legal protectionIn Trinidad and Tobago, the creation, copying, publishing, distribution, transmission, purchase, exchange or showing of child pornography is outlawed in Section 40 of the Children’s Act.
The act states that should any of Section 40’s subsections be violated, the offender is liable, on conviction on indictment, to a fine of $30,000 and to imprisonment for ten years.
Additionally, Section 41 states that a person who intentionally exposes a child or causes a child to be exposed to pornography commits an offence and is liable, on summary conviction, to a fine of $5,000 and to imprisonment for nine months; or upon conviction on indictment, to a fine of $30,000 and to imprisonment for five years.
The Sunday Express was, however, told by the foundation that despite this, the TTPS was not actively investigating the presence of child pornography discovered in these groups.
We contacted the TTPS corporate communications channel and its Cybercrime Unit via e-mail on Friday to ask about their knowledge of online pornography rings.
No response was received. Issues such as revenge porn and image abuse, however, remain unlegislated in Trinidad and Tobago, with the exception of the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill, No 3, 2021, which has not been passed by Parliament.
The act was introduced by the then-attorney general and minister of legal affairs Faris Al-Rawi in the Senate on December 7, 2021. It sought to insert four new sections that would address voyeurism, the taking and sharing of intimate images without consent, sharing of intimate images, and compensation and rectification.
The Parliament website shows that a Senate committee report has been laid.
But advocates told the Sunday Express the bill had been poorly drafted and could not be passed into law until “fixed”.
United States by comparison
In the United States, the production, distribution, reception and possession of child pornography are prohibited by federal law.
The US Code Title 18. Crimes and Criminal Procedure sections 2251, 2252 and 2260 cover the sexual exploitation of children, activities relating to material involving the sexual exploitation of minors and the production of sexually explicit depictions of a minor for importation into the United States.
People who commit child pornography could face severe statutory penalties.
First-time offenders convicted of producing child pornography under 18 USC Section 2251 could face fines and a statutory minimum of 15 years to 30 years maximum in prison.
Should the offender have prior convictions or if the offences occur in aggravated situations where the imagery pursued are violent in nature or if the minor was sexually abused, the offender could potentially face life imprisonment.
All but two states (Massachusetts and South Carolina) have separate laws dealing with revenge pornography, which vary.
Source:
https://trinidadexpress.com/news/local/ ... cb7d5.html