Nepal has been plagued by high levels of child sexual exploitation and
trafficking since the 1980s. Poverty and violent political instability in link
with the abolition of monarchy in the years 2000 have taken a toll on the
Nepalese people. Children are especially vulnerable and are faced with
violence, abuse, exploitation and trafficking. Nepal has become a destination
for sexual exploitation through travel and tourism. The Internet has
increasingly facilitated the sexual exploitation of children in tourism in
Nepal, as children are increasingly groomed online by perpetrators from other
countries through fake accounts before travelling to the country. With easy
access to internet and digital platforms, the sexual exploitation of girls and
young women is increasing in Nepal. In 2019, NCMEC received 63,366 CyberTipline
(suspected child sexual exploitation reports) from Nepal that increased to
178,371 in 2020 and 263,130 in 2021. Sexual exploitation of boys (particularly
those living on the street) is a phenomenon that is often overlooked by the
public in Nepal, and is on the rise 1 , but still largely under-recognised and
under-researched. The increase in use of online media during COVID 19 pandemic
further enhanced the vulnerability of children to sexual exploitation through
the Internet. According to a study conducted by ChildSafeNet and ECPAT
Luxembourg in Nepal in early 2020, 12.80% children and 1
https://www.ecpat.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/EXSUM_A4A_SA_NEPAL.pdf young
people (18.58% boys and 6.88% girls) experienced live streaming of sexual abuse
and exploitation 2 . Lack of awareness and understanding among children,
parents, caregivers, Government and Non[1]Government service
providers including officials of Law Enforcement Agency on the issue of online
sexual exploitation of children is a significant cause to address the issue
which is extensively prevailed in the country. According to the Knowledge,
Attitude, and Practices (KAP) survey conducted among 452 children in Kathmandu
valley showed that 75% of children didn’t have information to secure
themselvesfrom possible online sexual exploitation. While around 15% of
children admitted in the survey that they were abused online, also, an
overwhelming majority (72%) of the respondents did not know what they should do
or the services available in case they encountered sexually abusive situations
online. Adding to the challenge, OCSE is not perceived by all the stakeholders
in the same way. The study reported parents, guardians, teachers, peers and
civil society workers, are also not well aware of online abuse and exploitation
and do not have adequate knowledge to monitor children’s internet habits and to
protect them from possible exploitation. Nepal's law does not address online
sexual violence, however there are clear signs that OCSE is happening to both
girls and boys. Nepal Government's response to cyber-crime is inadequate. With
available laws and technologies, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) is
struggling to investigate cyber related crimes. Police investigators,
prosecutors, adjudicators, court officials all are working with available laws
which do not adequately address OCSE issues indicating lack of training and
engagement with the enforcement agencies addressing cyber-crime. The existing
law doesn't consider the issue of consent around distribution of images. This
makes it difficult for cases of online abuse to come under law which makes
children and youth extremely vulnerable towards exploitation online by the
perpetrators. Also existing legislation does not clearly define crimes done
virtually (i.e. Live streamed child sexual abuse). While child sexual
exploitation and trafficking remain prevalent, only about five in 100 cases are
reported. The Anti-Slavery International report 3 reveals that there is a huge
gap in ensuring child survivors have access to their rights in the country, the
major causes of which are social stigma, lack of rights knowledge or
understanding,fear and intimidation, and the compounding impact of a child’s
social, legal, economic, gender or disability status stemmed as integral to
their experiences of injustice. Children do not have access to the Nepalese
justice system and therefore remain unprotected by it in reality. Nepal’s Child
Protection System is not robust to address the need and rights of children in
need. The system shows a deterioration of its implementation, monitoring and an
appalling lack of adequate victim support measures. The Law Enforcement
Agencies act in a reactive manner with no or limited child friendly approach.
Platforms facilitating OCSE are Facebook, Youtube, WhatsApp, private websites
and adult Apps. According to the media reports, many complaints in these social
media platforms are filed every day since the operation of the cyber bureau in
May 2019 where the majority of complainants have been girls and women. Though
Nepal Telecom Authority (NTA) has authority to manage and regularise
telecommunications service, and in case, any complaint is received, after
necessary assessment, may order for taking down the website that is hosted from
Nepal, but there is absence oflaw for NTA to order ISPs to block websites. 3
https://www.antislavery.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/ASI_Nepal_CSE_Justice_Report.pdf
2 ChildSafeNet and ECPAT Luxembourg, 2020, Rapid Assessment of Live Streaming
of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse of Children and Young People (Unpublished
manuscript) There is no victim and witness protection system developed in the
country, with no systematic reporting mechanism for the reporting of OCSE,
apart from going to the police station and filing complaints as in regular
criminal cases. Further, the Internet Service Providers (ISPs), at the moment,
neither protect the content oftheir service users nor have capacity to store
all contents of their customers and none ofthe Nepalese laws make them liable
to store content. ISPs do not have powers to monitor, block or filter the
content nor do they have control over the contents that their clients access.
There are many victims of OCSE in Nepal who are hidden and need to be
identified since people and the communities are not aware of the OCSE and its
effects. The country lags in both legislation and awareness on the issue of
child sexual exploitation online. Direct physical abuse is considered as abuse
while online abuses are not taken into account so there is a need for outreach
and awareness programs on OCSE in Schools so as to reach every child, family
and community that ultimately leads the society. The children who are already
engaged in the Adult Entertainment Sector (AES), commercial sex work, domestic
works, and migrant works need immidiate attention to bring them out of the
exploitative situation and rehabilitate them in safe community environment.