Name and shame online sex offenders

The Sri Lanka Police Children and Women Bureau arrested a 21-year-old man from the Beliatta area recently for allegedly operating Facebook groups and pages used to share non-consensual photographs and sexually explicit content involving women and children.

The shocking aspect of the case is that preliminary inquiries identified several  groups where users operating fake accounts attempted to sell photographs and videos including photos of members of their own families including siblings and their own mothers.

The arrests of the suspect came after social media influencers exposed the online groups involved in this depravity thus forcing the Police to act. Many of these groups appear to be operating from overseas, the Police said while urging parents to closely monitor their children’s social media use and online interaction.

While authorities can warn parents/teachers to be vigilant, when such depraved persons operate from within their own homes, there is a bigger problem facing society as a whole.

While living  life online is an individual preference, when social media platforms are used for sexual exploitation largely of women and children without their consent, it is a serious crime and needs to be dealt with in the harshest possible manner.

In 2023, a Sri Lankan man who was an administrator of a WhatsApp group who sent out 17 clips involving child sexual abuse was jailed for 18 months in Singapore. The 30 year old married man with three-year-old child at the time, had pleaded guilty to various offences that included distributing child abuse material. A 25-year-old Sri Lankan man had also been jailed, also in Singapore, with links to the same offences.

The Police warning that many such groups appear to be operating from overseas could be accurate given the case of the two Lankan men jailed in Singapore. They are likely out of jail by now and back in the country, but it is not clear if there is an exchange of such information between the authorities Singapore and Sri Lanka and if such criminals can be kept under surveillance after they return. 

Given the lax laws in the country to deal with sexual offenders, it is possible that many will get away but the most effective manner to deal with such criminals is to name and shame them. While they may be operating behind false names and accounts, the law authorities are in a position to identify these persons and expose them. More than parading drug dealers before cameras, Police would do well to parade before the public and expose these vile criminals before the public so that others will be deterred from attempting such shameful acts.

Influencers who exposed the Facebook groups which had over 7,0000 members, deserve to be lauded. Many young men and women came forward to expose the contents of these FB groups thus forcing the Police and the Women’s and Children’s Ministry to act.

In the case of the Sri Lankan man who was jailed in 2023, the prosecutor told the Singapore court of the sick nature of the crime. “The contents of these clips scrape the very pits of depravity. They involve children being raped, possibly being trafficked into sex, and in one clip a pre-pubescent child (was) filmed having sex with a farmyard animal.”

These are the heinous crimes that are possibly being committed against children and even young adults in the country even now. These are the things the authorities should wake up to and put their full force to crackdown on and expose if the women and children of this country are to feel safe.