By Mabinty M.Kamara
Defense for Children International, in partnership with the Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC), have launched a portal designed to track and intercept child sexual abuse materials posted on the internet.
The move done under an initiative dubbed Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), was unveiled on Thursday, as part of the weekly government press briefing at the Information Ministry’s conference hall.
Abdul Manaff Kemokai, Executive Director of Defense for Children International, explained that the portal would serve as a platform to deal with some of the abuses that children face from illegal internet users.
“This portal will contribute to tackle child sexual abuse imagery on the Internet. The portal will be a unique opportunity and Sierra Leoneans must not hesitate to report the child sexual abuse images to the portal at https://report.iwf.org.uk/sl . The portal is an easy to use web form, that is confidential, and reporters can stay anonymous if they want,” Kemokai said.
Kemokai later explained to Politico that the portal would allow Sierra Leoneans to report child sex materials when they see it online. He said once the report is sent it would be accessed by the analyst in the United Kingdom who would deleted it from the system immediately. He added that culprits would also be traced and reported.
“We will take legal action against anyone through which a report of child sexual abuse image was published on the internet, including those who share it. We work with the Family Support Unit of the Sierra Leone Police and the Transnational Organized Crime Unit (TOCU) and if it’s a cross border issue, we will use the Interpole,” he noted.
The internet has come under tight scrutiny over the years due to the misuse of social media. Countries around the world have struggled to deal with abusive internet contents, particularly contents uploaded by pedophiles.
Besides lack of resources, Sierra Leone has been unable to make any headway in this due to its lack of a cyber-security policy to deal with the menace.
Few months ago, images of Chinese miners holding the breast of two adolescent Sierra Leonean girls went viral on social media in the country, provoking outrage and a debate on the subject.
A 2016 report by the Canadian Centre for Child Protection on Child Abuse Images on the internet reviewed 152, 000 and examined 43, 762 unique images and videos classified by Cybertip.ca as child sexual abuse material, which highlights the severity of the problem.
“This 2016 report highlights the serious prevalence of child sexual abuse material on the internet and the need for more to be done to identify the children portrayed in the images and videos, stop offenders, and reduce the availability and continued distribution of this content,” a portion of the report stated.
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