With a national surge of suspected child sexual exploitation reports since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, local activists and counselors are urging parents to be wary of what their children are doing online.
According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, there were more than 21.7 million reports of suspected child sexual exploitation made to their CyberTipline in 2020. This marks the highest number of reports received in one year.
The Internet Watch Foundation reported its worst year on record for child sexual abuse online in 2021 as it confirmed 252,000 URLs containing images or videos of children being sexually abused, compared with 153,000 in the previous year.
Trinity Gardner, an advocate for Domestic Violence Prevention Inc. in Texarkana, said this spike started with more children being home and online more often since the beginning of the pandemic.
"The big factor with these spikes was that children started being homeschooled because of the pandemic," she said. "So, their access to the internet, social media and doing things online so much has caused a spike in online exploitation cases."
Even with many children back in school and not virtually learning, the routine of being online and exposed to technology has made it easier for online predators to have access to children, said Karah Dickeson, a licensed professional counselor.
"So, we put all of our kids online, we had a drastic decrease in child abuse reporting anyways and hotline numbers were down because kids weren't in schools," said Dickeson, who is based in Texarkana, Texas. "They weren't seeing these people every day, so the way they're interacting is online. That was their exposure to the outside world."
Dickeson said she's been seeing the numbers increase for years.
"I just think that we're talking about it more now, to be honest," she said. "Do I think there is an uptick in cases being reported? Yeah. But I think we've just got more kids exposed to technology now."
This exposure can lead to what Dickeson and Gardner call the "grooming" process.
"What we know about predators is that they will attempt to build a relationship with a kid in any way possible, whether it's through typical grooming, pretending to be someone else or whatever it may be," Dickeson said. "They develop relationships with these kids, and they start to talk about things that they're interested in. These people that are trying to exploit children – they're chameleons. They try to become what they see are the holes in the child's needs – whether that's friendship, supervision or validation. So, they target areas in which the child may be struggling."
Even children in elementary school can be targeted.
Gardner said though it can be hard or embarrassing for parents to discuss sex with their children, it's important to discuss the topic and find out what's going on if there's a sudden change in a child's behavior.
"Research has shown that children really wish they would've just had that conversation with their parents," she said. "It doesn't have to be a big show. It can just be things here and there, like noticing different changes in behavior and opening that door for conversation with their kids."
Another issue with online exposure for children is the influence of TV shows, movies and other forms of media that can portray and even encourage toxic relationships.
Dickeson said education is key when it comes to this, and it's important to tell kids that not everything they see or hear is healthy behavior.
"People who sexually abuse kids are very seldom strangers," she said. "It's typically a trusted adult. People like this that have access to kids are often trusted by parents. They put themselves in roles to have access to kids.
"What a parent needs to look out for is paying attention to your child's body language. When they say, 'Eh, I don't want to,' or 'no thanks,' it's listening to them for what they're actually saying and helping them understand their own boundaries."
Gardner wants to remind locals that DVP provides education in the prevention of all types of abuse.
"It's our job as an agency, and we want to break the cycle of violence in our community," she said. "And we truly believe that starts in our school system and with our kids, talking with them about what is and what's not a healthy relationship."
(For more information, visit dvptxk.org. To learn more about signs of child abuse or what to do if your child makes an outcry of abuse, visit cactx.org.