Child trafficking - another sickening symptom of COVID-19

By Markandeya Karthik

As you read this, the global COVID numbers continue to creep up without light at the end of the tunnel. Unfortunately, as we are distracted by the virus, an even more insidious danger is thriving: the industry of child trafficking. There are two reasons for this: first, an increased amount of online exposure and, second, higher rates of migration.

As schools shut and classes go online, children have a high chance of being subjected to issues such as “cyber-bullying, risky online behavior, and exploitation”, according to the UN. Virtual classrooms are prone to becoming hunting grounds for online predators and traffickers. With the ability to hack the computer cameras of students, lure children into traps using anonymous channels and fake profiles, and create false advertisements that draw children into lucrative but deceitful opportunities, online predators have never had it easier to stalk their prey.

The International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children has observed an increase of online grooming cases globally. According to their spokesman, Guillermo Galarza, “Recent statistics indicate that children are spending time online more than ever. This has developed a lot of room for online child exploitation.”

Coronavirus inflicted migration also serves as a conduit for trafficking. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime stated that “closures and restrictions [of specific roads due to COVID19] has resulted in the use of more risky routes and higher prices for smuggling services, exposing child migrants and refugees to an increased chance of abuse, exploitation and trafficking.”

In India, for example, 100 million migrant workers are returning from cities to their homes in rural areas due to a lack of work. With public transportation shut down, and lockdown conditions making other forms of transport inaccessible, migrant workers and their families are sometimes walking over 1500 kilometres to make it back to their villages. This is the perfect opportunity for traffickers to pounce on their victims, as a) kidnapping is significantly easier when parents don’t have the safety net of closed transportation, b) the law and order situation is compromised, and c) a majority of these migrants are in great financial difficulty - desperate to believe anything that shows them a way out. ChildLine India, a charitable organization dedicated to helping children in distress, received 92,000 migrant-child related calls within the first week of lockdown, according to the Deccan Herald newspaper.

In regular times, the UN ascribes governments a central role in tackling child trafficking. In these times of distress, governmental responsibility only increases and needs to be supplemented. They must ensure that COVID-19 prevention and response plans integrate age-appropriate and gender-sensitive measures to protect all children from violence, neglect and abuse. Child protection services must coordinate with NGOs to bolster prevention and response mechanisms. Technology companies must increase efforts to keep children safe online, including providing access to free child helplines, age-appropriate services, safe e-education platforms, and using their channels to share online child safety advice. They must also do more to detect and stop harmful activity against children online, including grooming and the creation and distribution of child abuse images and videos.

Time is ticking. The task at hand - preventing and controlling child trafficking in the face of the coronavirus - is not easy. As you read these final lines, two children have been trafficked as a result of COVID-19. The only way to plateau these numbers is stringent action by institutions who have the most to provide, and the least to lose.