Online harassment of minors has increased since the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic in France in March last year, with a strong trend towards youth aged 14 to 16 being targeted by webcam blackmail and revenge porn, according to child protection group e-Enfance.
In 2020, the group registered more than 12,000 calls on its helpline Net Ecoute, with little doubt the volume of calls, over the average of 10,000, was triggered by the first coronavirus lockdown.
“We had 30 percent more calls than usual, and a lot of adolescents,” says e-Enfance director Justine Atlan of the period during France’s first lockdown last spring.
“Usually it’s both adolescents and parents who call, but in this case it was primarily adolescents targeted by online harassment.”
57 percent rise in 'sextortion' of minors
E-Enfance said one trend that stood out was a 57 percent jump in calls from teenagers in a panic after becoming targets of sexual extortion, also known as sextortion.
The trend saw girls aged 15 and 16 becoming targets of revenge porn and boys from age 14 being the victims of webcam blackmail.
Revenge porn involves online publication of sexually explicit images, or the threat of publication, sometimes by a former partner after a separation.
The threat can be used to blackmail victims into performing sex acts or continuing relationships, to punish them for ending relationships, to silence them, to destroy reputations or to extract money. It can be real or fake, with sexual images not necessarily depicting the person with whom they are associated.
Webcam blackmail involves cybercriminals posing as someone else, coaxing targets to undress and perform sexual acts before a webcam.
The perpetrators record the acts and then reveal their true intent, demanding money or more explicit images and threatening to release the images to family, friends and the public if victims do not comply.
e-Enfance said it received 4,315 alerts concerning webcam blackmail and revenge porn in 2020, a 57 percent increase from the 2,747 it received in 2019.
Other elements suggest the reported cases are the tip of the iceberg. Results of a poll commissioned by the group in February 2020 found that already, before the Covid epidemic, one in 10 youngsters had been the target of some form of harassment on the web or on social networks.
Harassment remains constant
A follow-up study is planned for this year to see how trends have evolved, but the group says online abuse has not returned to its pre-Covid level.
“We thought the explosion of calls we received during lockdown would subside as restrictions were lifted,” Atlan says. “It did go down, but only from 30 to 20 percent more calls than usual, and that has remained constant, nearly one year later.”
Atlan interprets the consistent levels of the abuse as an effect of the greater reliance on online technology that accelerated during coronavirus lockdown, which obliged young people to attend classes from their laptops.
“We have the impression there has been an acceleration of uses and practices in the kinds of harassment young people can encounter online,” she says.
Campaign for a safer Internet
The helpline assists targets in signalling illegal activity to web and social media platforms and taking legal action, but the group’s main focus for dealing with online risks is dialogue and prevention.
For that, the group is taking part of Safer Internet Day on Tuesday, an annual international day of conferences and awareness campaigns with a focus this year on promoting online safety during the Covid pandemic.
Are you ready for tomorrow?
— Safer Internet Day (@safeinternetday) February 8, 2021
On #SaferInternetDay, we’ll be millions of change-makers, joining forces together for a better internet across over 170 countries!
Discover the wealth of (online) events and activities you can join at https://t.co/GatEKNz8WA pic.twitter.com/Y4uwsZfd68
“What’s positive in the lockdown was also parents and children became closer when it came to digital technology,” Atlan says.
“Parents sometimes played video games with their children and better understood why their children enjoyed them. Parents also discovered social networks… and became perhaps less judgemental and less likely to see their children as being addicted to technology.
“Now that has to be put to the benefit of children’s online safety,” Atlan continues. “We have to put pressure on parents, educators and children so that children can use digital technology safely and in a way that benefits them.”
The Net Ecoute helpline, accessible in France at 0 800 200 000, is a free, anonymous and confidential service for children, adolescents, parents and educators concerned about online harassment or other issues, including screen time and addiction.
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