Although there is an increase in the number of children who use smartphones, internet and social media platforms, they are being targeted by cybercriminals and child sex offenders, but it has been found that there are few complaints about this to the police. Experts have said that incidents like 'cyber grooming' and 'sextortion' have increased on social media. They say that this has added a challenge to children's online safety.

As online abuse complaints are made offline, victimized children and parents do not go to the police. The experience of a girl from Kathmandu on Snapchat can be taken as a representative case of this. AB (name changed), a girl from Kathmandu studying in class 12, was sent a 'friend request' on Snapchat four years ago by a person introducing her by the name of a relative. 

'After sending a photo of my aunt and saying I was her friend, I accepted the request saying it was a person I know,' she said in a recent program organized by Child Safe Net together with Tik Tok, 'That person told me a secret, let's make a video call. When he went to the call, he started showing his private part. I turned off my mobile phone. Later he sent a photo of me nude to my sister. We reported it to Snapchat, but we didn't go to the police because we couldn't report it to the police online at that time.' 

Another student of class 8, CD (name changed), said that although she does not have an account on social media, she watches memes, reels and other videos from her parents' mobile phones. She said that while watching 'content' like that, sometimes obscene content comes to mind and it makes her feel uncomfortable. It seems that not only the children themselves but also some parents and celebrities open accounts in the name of their children and post their pictures and videos in order to gain access to social networks. "By doing this, children are exposed to harmful content online," said Anil Raghuvanshi, founder of Child Safe Net. 

According to the Cyber ​​Bureau of Nepal Police, there are few complaints about child sexual abuse online. 13 complaints were registered in the financial year 2076/77, 21 in 2077/78, 16 in 2078/79, 15 in 2079/80, 6 in 2080/81 and only 6 in the current financial year. "Looking at this data, it may seem that cases of online child sexual abuse are less visible or decreasing, but such cases have not decreased," said Deepakraj Awasthi, Deputy Director and Spokesperson of the Cyber ​​Bureau. , neighbors and sometimes even the root of the house are connected as culprits.'  The

bureau recently arrested Aman Pratap Harijan from Nawalparasi (Bardghat Susta West) on October 29 on the charge of preparing material related to child sexual abuse and broadcasting it electronically. Spokesperson Awasthi says that in cases involving children, the social media companies will facilitate immediately and provide the details requested by the police, so it will be easy to reach the perpetrators. A teacher of a private school in Bhaktapur was arrested by the police on May 24 last year after he tried to 'manipulate' a minor's photo and try to kill his character.

Raghuvanshi, the founder of Child Safenet, which is running a safe internet campaign for children and youth, says, "There is a tendency to get close to children online, trick them, make them naked and blackmail using them." Incidents ranging from cyber grooming, child trafficking to child marriage have been witnessed. Reducing it is through awareness.' 

Child sex offenders, i.e. pedophiles, use social media to target children, so parents need to be especially alert, Raghuvanshi said. "Some sex offenders approach children through social media and entice them by giving them toys and chocolates," said Raghuvanshi, "Some gangs take information from children through social media and send other pedophiles for abuse." 

It is mentioned on the website of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) that 178 thousand 371 reports of child sexual abuse were reported from Nepal in 2020 during the Covid epidemic. In 2022, this number increased to 263,130. According to a study report published last year by Voice of Children on the issue of online sexual abuse of children, most of the children in Nepal who have access to the Internet have been abused. 38.60 percent of the girls who participated in the survey said that they had received seductive (obscene) calls or chats, while 34 percent had received nude photos. Similarly, 13.60 percent of teenage girls were requested to share seductive photos, links, videos or emojis.

The government drafted the 'Online Child Protection Procedure, 2078' three years ago in order to reduce the increasing abuse of children online. Deepak Dhakal, Deputy Secretary of the Child Protection and Development Branch of the Ministry of Women, Children and Senior Citizens, said that although the procedure has been extensively discussed, the ministry is yet to approve it. "This has been stopped because there are many laws in the pipeline in the ministry," he said, "the ministry will now proceed." If this procedure was implemented, it would have been a big step in the online protection of children, online complaint system and child empowerment, he said. When a child experiences abuse at 9 o'clock in the night and cannot preserve the evidence until the next day, it is necessary to create a mechanism to send a link and file a complaint immediately.' 

Section 57 of the Children Act mandates  According to Dharel, the procedure has been made keeping in mind the creation of child protection standards. In section 57 of the Children's Act, schools, every public body that works directly with children and the private sector and social organizations must ensure the protection of children to prevent violence against children or child sexual abuse. It is mentioned that child protection standards should be created and implemented at the institutional level in order to take immediate action on complaints. In addition, it has been clarified that the implementation of this standard is the main responsibility of schools, every public body and private sector and social organizations.