Sexual blackmail: 7 out of 10 children exposed to sexual images, celebrities, media personalities remain key targets

Head of the National Cyber Security Centre has said 7 out of 10 children are mostly exposed to sexual images.

This, according to Dr. Albert Antwi-Boasiako, was revealed in 2019 data collected by his outfit.

He noted that celebrities and media personalities were the most targeted victims of sexual crimes in the year 2020 exercise conducted.

“In 2019, I think we sensitise more than 40,000 students, it states that 7 out of 10 children have been exposed to sexual images either online or any other platforms.

“A lot of things has also happened within the space in which certain people have been targeted; celebrities, journalists included, public Official,” he said.

Statistics collated by the Centre shows more than 20, 000 contacts were received while 1,128 cases were established.

Of the total cases, 171 were sexual offences with blackmailing taking a chunk.

“When we examine the trend, a lot of children are involved, second cycle school student are mostly targeted as victims.”

Speaking on The Law on JoyNews Sunday, Dr Albert Antwi-Boasiako said sexual blackmail is the second-highest cybercrime in Ghana after online impersonation.

“The highest of all the incidence we’ve received was online impersonation, so this is the second as far as the cases received by the centre is concerned.”

He, however, indicated that the said figure excludes that of the case reported to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) because many people, for personal reasons, do not report some of these cases.

He noted that while there is a need to promote the use of the internet, the country may face such challenges, however, “we needed to act as a country to create some decency in the cyberspace.”

Dr Antwi-Boasiako indicates that the new Cybercrime Act has come at the right time to sanitise the internet of sexual offenses and hold culprits accountable.

The Security Advisor also warned that ignorance of the law is no excuse.

“First of all Samson, I use to say that ignorance of the law can never be an excuse in the court of law, that won’t be entertained,” he told the host.

He said there is a need to note that the platforms they promote are part of our collective digital wellbeing, however, there are certain boundaries that they cannot deceive.