If you publish your child on networks, he or she may be a victim of child sexualization.

According to the report 'Profile of detainees for crimes related to child pornography' prepared by the Ministry of the Interior, 72% of convicted dual offenders, that is, pedophiles who have also physically abused, had type 0 images on the scale. CIESI in its collections. Level 0 corresponds to non-sexualized images of children from commercial, family or legitimate sources. That is, they are normal, everyday photos that are mostly published by parents or family members without any malicious intention.

Eight out of ten children already have their trace on the Internet before they are 6 months old, according to a survey carried out by the computer security firm AVG in 10 countries, including Spain. This phenomenon of sharing visual content about children on the Internet is called 'sharenting'. At first glance and for most people, this content does not seem likely to be offensive, much less become a driver of perversities such as child abuse. However, these images can not only be consumed by pedophiles for personal use, but there may be the case in which they are used to carry out crimes of identity theft, online fraud or that this content becomes exploitative material. child sex.

Unfortunately, the problem is not just an error due to ignorance or recklessness. As surprising as it may seem, cases are being uncovered of parents who are accused of being aware of this situation and not only making the decision to ignore it but also taking advantage of it for economic purposes. Social networks like TikTok work with a payment system for users who are part of the application's creator fund, which means that these content creators can obtain significant sums of money based on the number of views of their videos.

Recently, a movement has gone viral on TikTok to warn of the attitude of an American mother, Jaqueline (@wren.eleanor), accused of publishing videos that could misinterpret her 4-year-old daughter. The recriminations are due to several reasons, among them, the suspicious increase in 'saved' (downloads by users) in videos that can be misinterpreted compared to those that cannot. The main problem lies in the number of comments that warn her about the worrying exposure suffered by her daughter and the mother's response has been to completely eliminate the option to comment, ignoring the insinuations and thus continue publishing videos of the minor. The doubts are not unfounded since the girl's name appears by default in the application's search engine, along with suggestions such as “eating a pickle,” “disturbing,” “scandalous.” outfits” (“scandalous clothes”), and others of the style. The account has more than 17 million followers.

The regulations indicate that TikTok requires a minimum of 13 years to be able to upload videos to the platform, but this does not affect the hundreds of fathers and mothers who dedicate themselves to creating content daily dedicated almost exclusively to their children from their own accounts. Regardless of the type of content they publish, these parents are exposing minors publicly and, as the 'Profile of those arrested for crimes related to child pornography' points out, turning them into possible victims of child sexualization. And if that were not enough, in most cases they are profiting from it.

Detainee profile

According to the aforementioned profile of the men detained in Spain, distinctive characteristics can be found that could help identify them. Generally, they present their first antecedents at the beginning of their middle adulthood, they are Spanish, with qualified jobs, single and without children. Only a minority have an advanced level of computer knowledge and, although they do not usually contact other users, almost 75% spread child pornographic material, despite the fact that only a few are considered active distributors. The majority of the material seized are images of pre-pubescent girls, however, dual detainees, that is, those who have previous contact sexual crimes, have a preference for boys, usually have direct access to minors and, probably, consume content of level 0.

In less than 10 years, child sexual abuse content on the Internet has increased by 1,815%, according to data from the Internet Watch Foundation. Among this material, there are rapes and sexualized images of minors, but many others are not. The Internet will probably never be a safe place for minors, despite this, it is important to remember the importance of ensuring that this insecurity is not caused by family members either due to ignorance or by trying to do business with the image of their children online. social networks.