Children should be trained in what is good or bad relating to sexual matters in appropriate language and later on in more explicit terms, to protect them from being exploited and harmed online and offline, former Judge of the Supreme Court, Justice Shiranee Thilakawardena said last week.
She was delivering the keynote speech at the International Women’s Day celebrations organised by the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL).
The theme this year was ‘Countering Technology based violence against women’ as the HRCSL has observed that technology based violence against women is an increasingly common form of violence that occurs via offline and online media in various forms across the country.
Justice Thilakawardena said that she had been playing with computers since 1985 when they first came out. “But it was only when I studied Cyber Technology and Cyber Security a year ago that I realised the terrible harm being perpetrated,” she added.
“The backdrop of a crime is the internet because everyone has a smart phone or has access to the internet. Information is open and available to everybody including perverts, paedophiles and every wicked person without morals. Your children and young girls are the most vulnerable. There is no state sovereignty for internet and therefore, cyber space is independent and ungovernable.
“Today, young boys, girls and even grandmothers are being raped and videoed and the video is being put on pornographic sites.
“When we were young we taught our children of the birds and bees and reproduction. We taught our children that no one could touch their private parts without their permission. Today, most cases of child abuse are dismissed because children do not known the correct words to describe their private parts,” said Justice Thilakawardena.
“Today’s generation is know as the ‘gen Z’ and they know nothing more than the smart phone. Facebook is considered obsolete now and snapchat is considered the in thing. You have to share your location to log onto snapchat. Children’s games on Snapchat controls the child’s mind and exposes the child to pornographic content. One game was ‘13 different ways to commit suicide’,” she said.
“Most web sites invade your privacy. The first question one is asked is where they live, how much they earn and children are asked who their parents are and how much they earn.”
Justice Thilakawardena said that child pornography is big business on the dark web. Perpetrators charge Bit coins worth millions of rupees from those who want to watch live streaming of children being abused, raped and even murdered.”
One has to be cautious when using VPN as they operate in the dark web. Your laptops, CCTV’s can be hacked into and your private moments watched and recorded. Data from your mobile or computer can be retrieved without your permission.
“Children have become extremely sexual today, due to lack of supervision and because they are not being taught anything else,” she said.
“There are hundreds of cases before our courts where boys as young as 14 have raped girls under 12. Most Judges simply postpone judgement because they can’t look a 14-year-old child in the face and sentence him to the minimum seven years imprisonment.”
Chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, Dr. Deepika Udagama said that every day was a women’s day for the HRCSL but each year the HRC celebrated International Women’s Day by highlighting the achievements or challenges faced by Sri Lankan women.