Parents warned about vile child abuse ‘how-to guide’ circulating on the Dark Web
ONLINE predators are sharing a sick child sexual abuse guide via the dark web, a disturbing investigation has revealed.
Australian authorities have warned parents to be extra-vigilant of the paedos' disgusting targeting of kids to groom and exploit during the coronavirus pandemic lockdown.
The reported that perverts created and are sharing the online Covid-19 grooming manual, specifically to take advantage of children stuck at home.
Australia's eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, said the office has seen a huge rise in reports about material on child sexual abuse.
She also told the publication that investigators have noted a spike in searches by perverts on the dark web - seeking guidance on how to abuse kids.
The commissioner added: "Abusers see Covid-19 as a honey pot for them, with at-risk boys and girls spending much more time at home and online, often without supervision and often while feeling isolated and lonely."
She said paedos were using the online guide to learn about tricking children into sharing pics and vids of themselves.
Julie added: "The handbook advises predators to get their kicks online, rather than trying to meet children face-to-face because of restrictions and heightened vigilance of law enforcement on the streets."
The Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (ACCCE) and the Australian Federal Police (AFP) said they were concerned about online child sexual exploitation during the Covid-19 pandemic.
With many schools using web-based learning, children are online longer, where unwanted contact, grooming, personal photo sharing and image based abuse - sexual extortion - may occur.
Parents and carers working from home are not able to supervise online activities 24/7, the ACCCE added.
During self-isolation "more child sex offenders may be online, or there may be more opportunities for contact-offending against children", the organisation warned.
Prior to the pandemic, after two years of "intensive" work, 16 people in Australia were recently charged with 738 child exploitation offences.
The arrests followed an investigation in 2018 into an online website where users paid to access child abuse material.
As a result, 18 properties were raided and authorities were able to remove four Australian children from further harm.
'TOO REPULSIVE'
The ACCCE said its research into awareness of online child sexual exploitation showed that only 21 per cent of parents and carers believe that such abuse could happen to their child.
Yet the organisation received almost 17,000 reports of online child sexual exploitation in 2019.
There is also a stigma attached to the crime, with 21 per cent of parents or carers feeling the topic is "too repulsive or sickening" to even think about.
Last month The Sun reported on there being more than 300,000 people in the UK posing a sexual abuse threat to children, particularly during the coronavirus crisis.
Police chiefs said they feared predators were targeting youngsters through live webcam sites and forums while they are stuck indoors using computers.
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On March 5, government officials from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the United States launched a new set of voluntary principles designed to help digital industries to protect children online from child sexual abuse and exploitation.
These are aimed at ensuring there is no safe space for child sex offenders to operate on the internet and have been developed alongside Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Roblox, Snap and Twitter.
The principles cover various themes including preventing new and known child sexual abuse material from being uploaded.
Online grooming and preparatory behaviour are also being targeted, by preventing searches of child sexual abuse material.
