When children become the target of online abuse

In a bid to fight a rising trend of online pornography abuse and bullying, Agenzija Appogg in collaboration with the Malta Communications Authority, the Directorate for Educational Services, the Child's Commission, the Malta Police Force and the Secretariat for Catholic Education teamed up to create the 'BeSmartOnline' project - a project part-financed by the European Union coming to an end in two weeks' time.

As part of the 22-month long project, a two-day seminar delivered by Tink Palmer, CEO of the Marie Collins Foundation, was organised for professionals working in the field on online child abuse.

While acknowledging that the fight against online child abuse - which ranges from child pornography to bullying - can only be truly addressed if the international community comes together and the 'big money people' stop putting their financial interests before that of society, Palmer insists the world must have an agreed agenda on what constitutes a criminal offense.

"Internet hosts a global community, so it becomes difficult when it comes to chase perpetrators. For instance, nearly every country has a different age of consent; there are different ages of criminal responsibility sexual offensive acts vary from one country to another," she said.

Recent studies have confirmed that the majority of perpetrators are men - with the biggest group falling within the 19-26 age bracket - and that girls in abusive pictures appear a staggering 19 times more than boys. On the other hand, pictured boys tend to be younger.

 "Unfortunately, the internet has given rise to a new way of abusing children," Palmer said. "Children will never speak about what happens online because they would be ashamed of what happened... that's why it's important for parents, carers, educators and anyone who is close to children to take an interest in what goes on online."

She added that it shouldn't be unusual for parents to ask their children what they have been up to on the internet, just like it's not unusual to ask how their day at school has been.

Palmer said that although society would prefer for sexual offenders to be visible, "in reality, most offenders are the people in the street, people we know, people with families, people who live in communities, and in religious communities".

Palmer also insists that punishing the perpetrator is not enough: "People who have hurt children are not going to be in prison for life, and so they should be given treatment to help them become safe people, to be able to live among the community without being a threat once they get out of prison."