Prevention of Sex Exploitation

[00:00:00] Trigger Warning

[00:00:02] Please note, this episode contains themes and depictions of human trafficking that may be disturbing to listeners.

[00:00:08] Listener discretion is advised.

[00:00:10] If you or someone you know needs help, resources are available in the show notes.

[00:00:33] I am Jival, founder of the Missing Link Trust.

[00:00:35] And across the last seven episodes of the show, I have spoken to psychologists, lawyers, activists and other experts for their insight on child protection, sexual abuse, cyber safety and more.

[00:00:47] It's been an insightful and intense journey taking a look at the horrifying realities of the children who are sexually exploited.

[00:00:55] Today on the final episode of the season, I want to look to a positive future.

[00:01:01] To see how on-ground initiatives have made an impact and how technology can be a game changer in the prevention of human trafficking and sexual exploitation.

[00:01:11] What better place to start from than our very own doorstep?

[00:01:15] At the Missing Link Trust, we have been tirelessly working at the intersection of education, art and technology to raise mass awareness about sex trafficking.

[00:01:25] We hope to curb its rising figures and positively impact vulnerable populations of women and adolescents.

[00:01:33] I spoke to Prabir Mishra, the key program manager of our rural program in the Sundarbans who has been associated with Missing since 2017.

[00:01:42] He manages the timely execution of the Rural Awareness Program and the Women Empowerment Center activities, coordinates with administrative, legal and judicial bodies,

[00:01:53] and actively counsels domestic violence victims, assisting in victim rehabilitation and community engagement.

[00:02:01] To begin with, Prabir gives me an overview of the biggest problem areas the region has faced.

[00:02:16] We conducted a survey in the Sundarbans area and got to know that a lot of the people living in the area are migrants.

[00:02:24] The locals are mostly farmers or fishermen and there is no work for migrants to do here due to their unemployment and the resulting poverty.

[00:02:33] Their kids suffer from lack of education.

[00:02:36] From the survey results, we got to know that there is a lot of child marriage taking place in the area and this can often lead to domestic violence and trafficking.

[00:02:45] There are a few reasons for the rise in child marriage.

[00:02:49] Firstly, here in the Sundarbans community, every year one or two natural disasters take place.

[00:02:55] We see in cyclones like Amphan and Yas.

[00:02:59] Secondly, the number of cybercrimes has increased so parents feel children are very vulnerable.

[00:03:05] Also, COVID-19 played a huge role because children were not at school.

[00:03:10] Parents had no income.

[00:03:12] So a combination of all these reasons saw parents marrying their children off to make sure that they don't go missing or runaway.

[00:03:19] Also, the legal act to stop a child marriage does not have much impact in these areas.

[00:03:25] If you visit the community and tell them not to perform a child marriage,

[00:03:29] they just tell us that it's been a practice that has been taking place for years.

[00:03:34] There is this particular community development block in the Sundarbans region called Kultuli.

[00:03:39] From the past one to one and a half years, around 800 child marriages have taken place here

[00:03:45] and a year later these kids get pregnant.

[00:03:48] There is a government recording stating that there are more than 800 teenage pregnancies taken place in a year

[00:03:54] and this is just from the government record not taking into account unreported pregnancies.

[00:04:00] There is also increased cybercrime taking place.

[00:04:03] The government has given mobile phones and children's hands for educational purposes

[00:04:07] but they end up making a lot of unknown friends on the internet and are exposed to adult material.

[00:04:13] Their education has taken a back seat but we've seen a lot of negative incidents taking place due to mobile phones.

[00:04:20] Five months ago, we witnessed a case in which a girl started chatting with an unknown man online

[00:04:26] and they exchanged a few photos. What she didn't know was that the man morphed the photos in a compromising manner.

[00:04:33] He sent the morph pictures to her and blackmailed her by saying if she doesn't meet him

[00:04:38] he will upload all the photos to social media.

[00:04:41] Another case took place in a region here called Basanti

[00:04:45] where a girl's photo got morphed in the same way

[00:04:48] and in a village, if a girl is thought to bring dishonor to a family like this

[00:04:52] she is driven to suicide.

[00:04:54] In fact, there are more than 300 suicide cases in this region

[00:04:58] and the common factor seems to be such blackmailed cases through the mobile phones and social media.

[00:05:04] So we identified these problems and decided to work to tackle the issues.

[00:05:12] Now that we have heard from Prabir about the problem areas that are faced across the Sundarban region

[00:05:21] he tells us about how missing addresses these issues.

[00:05:29] Missing has worked over the past three years to develop the community,

[00:05:35] shape the mindsets of the people by communicating with them and put together youth groups.

[00:05:41] For domestic violence cases we provided weekly counseling to the victims.

[00:05:46] We are also running programs to bring families and communities together.

[00:05:50] While keeping our internal processes running, we realized

[00:05:53] we should also work together with the government by connecting to the local block development officers or BDOs

[00:05:59] the surpunches of grand panchayats, local police stations, school committees

[00:06:05] and other government committees to conduct meetings and monthly follow-ups

[00:06:09] to make sure a positive impact is taking place.

[00:06:12] Then we realized that we have the communities, schools and administrations covered

[00:06:17] but how do we connect with the children?

[00:06:21] This led us starting MASSP, the Missing Awareness and Safety School program.

[00:06:27] Our target for this year is to connect with 10,000 children

[00:06:30] and we've reached 5,000 of them to date across 15 big schools in Kultuli.

[00:06:36] We have created a lovely model wherein we visit the schools

[00:06:40] and make sure no student is left vulnerable to child marriage and trafficking.

[00:06:45] Through the program we have received a couple of cybercrime cases

[00:06:49] and I'm happy to say we have helped solve these cases.

[00:06:53] Once we get the address of the victim, we visit them, communicate with them

[00:06:58] and take follow-ups on the ongoing cases as we can see the impact of it.

[00:07:03] We have observed that a lot of the victims and their families are scared to go to the police station

[00:07:09] and they face many obstacles if and when they do.

[00:07:12] So they come to us and we help them.

[00:07:15] We have been conducting MASSP program in schools for the past 6 months now

[00:07:21] and within that period we have received over 40 to 50 phone calls regarding child marriage.

[00:07:26] The kids call us and inform us that there is a child marriage happening.

[00:07:30] So we involve the BDO and the police and stop these marriages from happening.

[00:07:36] There are definitely issues in some areas but the overall impact is positive

[00:07:41] and we want to grow more.

[00:07:44] With the help of the government, we recently did the program.

[00:07:47] There was a girl who would get threatening calls on her phone.

[00:07:51] The callers would say if you don't meet up with us, you won't be able to show your faces to anyone.

[00:07:57] That girl was a part of a youth group called Suhadhikari Youth Group

[00:08:02] which is doing a good job to create awareness and a safe network.

[00:08:06] So she called us and explained everything to us.

[00:08:09] After receiving the complaint, we informed the police and they did a good job at apprehending the culprit.

[00:08:16] We also felicitated the girl in front of the entire school and encouraged her to help others as well.

[00:08:23] We also make sure the survivors of any such cases of trafficking or sexual exploitation

[00:08:29] should be reintegrated successfully by providing them access to education

[00:08:34] and the ability to stand on their own two feet.

[00:08:37] Missing is also running two computer and digital literacy centres called Navdisha which are free of cost.

[00:08:44] We are also thinking of starting cyber safety lessons and professional counselling for them.

[00:08:50] We just want every child, every family and every community to believe that child marriage is not right

[00:08:57] and that the child should complete the education and be independent before thinking of getting married.

[00:09:04] And we are definitely making progress.

[00:09:16] It's extremely encouraging to hear about the work Missing is doing on the ground

[00:09:20] and it inspires me to keep pushing on to grow the organisation

[00:09:24] and support members of my team like Prabir and countless others in their unwavering efforts.

[00:09:30] If I zoom out a little, there are many other organisations in the country

[00:09:35] who are really doing some fantastic work to combat trafficking and sexual exploitation.

[00:09:40] One of them is the Cyber Peace Foundation,

[00:09:43] the world's first and largest non-profit and think tank of cyber and policy experts.

[00:09:48] They have had an impact on 200 million netizens in 112 countries.

[00:09:54] Its founder and president, Vinit Kumar, has had a career of more than 20 years

[00:09:59] where he has set up state government IT infrastructure,

[00:10:03] headed the Charkhan State Government Agency on Cyber Defence and a lot more.

[00:10:08] Vinit gives me an on-ground case study he recalls from his Charkhan police days around the year 2012.

[00:10:15] There was a gang which was quite active and they used to go to the tribal areas.

[00:10:26] Tribal areas where people were not going to do, they were not having money to have three meals a day.

[00:10:31] So what they used to do is these gangs used to offer them 1000 bucks and say,

[00:10:35] all you need to do is strip your daughter in front of a live camera.

[00:10:38] Which the head of family agreed because they didn't knew what can go wrong,

[00:10:43] what can go bad against them.

[00:10:45] They thought it's just putting their daughters in front of a camera, no harm there.

[00:10:49] But then the head of the family wasn't aware that that camera is connected to multiple locations

[00:10:55] and viewers are from across the world watching their daughters being stripped.

[00:11:00] Now fast forward now 2022, there are a lot of advanced services, cybercrime as a service

[00:11:05] that's being offered in the dark web where all these services, webcam, sex are all available at a premium cost.

[00:11:11] Earlier it used to be cash, now it is crypto, but the pattern is still the same.

[00:11:17] This only goes to show how the internet has become a medium for traffickers

[00:11:22] who are taking the kind of crimes they are committing to the next level by using the latest online tools.

[00:11:28] Something we have been focusing on in the previous episodes of the missing podcast.

[00:11:33] Vinit further explains how trafficking cases have been growing exponentially as everything moves online.

[00:11:41] One thing that the internet space or the cyberspace offers is the anonymity.

[00:11:50] So the perpetrator can be in any part of the world and can easily target the vulnerable population.

[00:11:57] So geography here is irrelevant now, this is a boundary less world.

[00:12:02] Then the growing number of platform, it's quite complex.

[00:12:06] The platform has increased there are issues happening on the gaming platform itself.

[00:12:10] There are issues happening on the other intermediaries on shopping sites.

[00:12:15] So it's everywhere.

[00:12:16] So it's quite difficult to keeping in mind the strengths that the cyber police stations have,

[00:12:21] the kind of resources that cyber police stations have.

[00:12:24] It's difficult for them to investigate the number of crimes that are coming in.

[00:12:28] And let me also add to this that these are not the unreported ones by the way.

[00:12:33] Now our challenge, the stuff that we see on the ground is majority of the cases are not reported.

[00:12:39] People don't report. They say that will not go.

[00:12:42] So we don't have to go to the police. We need informally help from you.

[00:12:45] Sometimes parents also come and say no we don't want any kind of formal FIR or any kind of formal process

[00:12:53] because it's regarding the girls marriage.

[00:12:55] So there are a lot of complex issues involved societal issues involved.

[00:12:59] While there may be a high number of cyber crime cases that go unreported in India,

[00:13:09] the country is still seen as a hotbed for cases of online trafficking and cyber sex exploitation.

[00:13:16] In 2021 India hit 4.7 million reports of suspected cases of child sexual exploitation online.

[00:13:24] To talk more about this, here's Tom Farrell, the global head of safeguarding alliances at Safe2Net,

[00:13:31] a British cyber safety company.

[00:13:34] They provide technology that focuses on prevention to keep children safe online.

[00:13:40] He has also served as a law enforcement officer in tackling online child sexual abuse and exploitation

[00:13:46] for which he has been awarded the Queen's Police Medal.

[00:13:50] Tom and Vinit tell us more about the rising numbers and their effects on law enforcement today.

[00:13:56] India is often portrayed as the CSAM captain of the world now.

[00:14:04] Anybody who's worked in law enforcement and government like I have done in the past would recognize this is too high a level to

[00:14:11] for any country regardless of your resources to fully investigate.

[00:14:16] The cases were used to kind of happen earlier also in fact, but now the intensity of the cases have grown.

[00:14:22] One positive side of COVID-19 is basically the connectivity and with almost over 900 million internet users.

[00:14:30] India is the second largest online market in the world and just behind China.

[00:14:35] And let me tell you it's just under 50% at the moment, that's the current statistics.

[00:14:40] So more and more users are joining, more and more people are joining.

[00:14:44] Digital India is something that is going to places and a lot of positives.

[00:14:50] But the negative side of thing is that criminals and in fact perpetrators, predators are also now using the space

[00:14:57] and kind of reaching out targeting the victims, targeting the children, targeting the vulnerable populations to this medium.

[00:15:05] In fact, the law enforcement, the police, the investigating agencies are trying to do the best they can.

[00:15:11] But then I must also tell that it's not an easy job for the police.

[00:15:17] The main challenge is that sheer volume of content means it's really difficult to see what are the prioritized cases.

[00:15:25] Where are the cases that we need to spend most time on because they're most likely to result in actual physical harm taking place to a child.

[00:15:34] So we experienced a very similar situation in the United Kingdom, obviously not quite such a big volume but our population is maybe one 15th of the size of India.

[00:15:45] So we had to develop means to triage those cases, prioritize them and make sure we could focus on the ones that are at the highest risk.

[00:15:54] It's a really difficult challenge and it's one that really does need to see law enforcement and government working side by side

[00:16:03] but also involving external organizations who may be able to help them as well.

[00:16:07] I think that you have to try and find a sweet spot where there is the level of trust where organizations such as mine feel that they can talk to government and law enforcement about solutions we might develop

[00:16:19] and law enforcement and government feel that they can talk to organizations in the tech sector as well and say to them, this is what we need to help.

[00:16:28] There's no point at a technology company creating a solution that nobody needs when it's produced.

[00:16:34] So it has to be that relationship of trust so you can create what is needed.

[00:16:39] I'm a firm believer in there has to be a big ecosystem of organizations involved in trying to prevent online harms.

[00:16:45] I believe there's a state in India called Kerala, so they have done an awful lot of work.

[00:16:50] They created a cyber dome in Kerala and they invited external organizations be that law enforcement and NGOs from Australia and New Zealand and the United States I believe

[00:17:03] and they helped them to create a solution that could contain CSAM, analyze it and allow them to work with authorities in other countries as well.

[00:17:14] So that's a real world example of what is already taking place in India to do that.

[00:17:19] Another key element are charities who can then support and help because the law enforcement side of it takes place

[00:17:27] but then you need to also support the victims and the survivors of any abuse that's taking place as well.

[00:17:33] It's not enough in today's global community for collaborations to just exist within the boundaries of a country.

[00:17:44] There is a pressing need for a joint effort with international alliances.

[00:17:48] Here's Julie Dawson, Chief Policy and Regulatory Officer at UTI, a digital identity and biometric technology company.

[00:17:57] They develop age and identity verification tools to support child protection online.

[00:18:03] Julie tells us more about the importance of global partnerships while we need to elaborate on how India collaborates with other countries.

[00:18:12] So we know that there are now standards developing around age assurance

[00:18:24] and we would encourage governments around the world to really understand and take part in that standards development so that they can refer to these age standards.

[00:18:33] There are bodies like Tech Coalition and We Protect Global Alliance that are looking at CSAM

[00:18:39] and are looking at what can technology companies do to adopt technology

[00:18:44] and those bodies are ones that we partner with to understand how can those big tech companies globally

[00:18:51] and the small and medium ones avail of identity verification, pseudonymity and age checking

[00:18:58] and more governments are free to participate and feed into the standards

[00:19:03] and I think that is a really strong way forward because it has to be technology that meets the standard and is independently audited

[00:19:10] so that you know and can trust what is under the hood and we would encourage governments to take part in that

[00:19:15] to understand what is the state of the art that is available but also to look carefully at the protections, the safeguards and the independence of audit.

[00:19:25] So there's a lot of good collaborations happening. There are bilateral dialogues that are happening.

[00:19:30] India is doing a lot on the cyber diplomacy front. We have the Office of the National Cyber Coordinator, Government of India.

[00:19:37] There has been a lot of exchange cyber dialogues like on 23rd of September itself.

[00:19:42] India and US have a bilateral in US discussing about many issues.

[00:19:47] There has been discussions in the UN Cyber Open Ended Working Group where India has represented

[00:19:52] and kind of sharing the problems that as Indians at netizens people are facing.

[00:19:57] So there are a lot of these bilateral dialogues track 1.5 and all with countries that are happening to kind of resolve this

[00:20:03] because this requires international cooperation and we need to see that in the boundary less world, how do we collaborate with each other?

[00:20:11] So India collaborating with US, India collaborating with UK and other countries.

[00:20:15] The other thing is what we have seen as civil society organization also like recently in fact we launched South Asia Cyber Peace Cooperation Council.

[00:20:24] In short it is SAC3 where the US government also joined in.

[00:20:29] We had representatives from Bangladesh, we have representative from Nepal obviously Indians side was also represented.

[00:20:36] And we have kind of gathered together and trying to create an ecosystem wherein any such cases that happens at least quick response can come informally.

[00:20:45] While the formal process can take time our kind of effort is to kind of see on how quickly we can give response to the victim and help that victim

[00:20:55] so that the victim doesn't get traffic, the victim doesn't get stuck or maybe the rehabilitation side of the victim also happens.

[00:21:02] So all of that the entire process we are trying to set up informally because many times you just need to develop good relationship.

[00:21:09] Like for us what we do is just pick up a phone speak to our friends in Bangladesh and say hey guys you need to help this victim

[00:21:16] or maybe the other side Nepal also we have done it.

[00:21:19] Working together domestically or internationally can only go so far without being backed by legal provisions.

[00:21:29] Tom and Vinit tell us more about the significance and existence of legislations in various countries

[00:21:36] and more importantly why we must keep adapting laws as the world changes around us.

[00:21:48] You've got the online safety bill in the United Kingdom that is being created by DCMS the Department for Digital Culture, Media and Sport

[00:21:58] and this is looking to address online harms in the broadest possible sense.

[00:22:04] I mean it hasn't gone through yet but the area that is of most interest for me is the online harms of children

[00:22:11] and asking companies to do more to search for both known and unknown content

[00:22:16] and also asking them to try and prevent things happening in the first place very much the area of work I'm interested in.

[00:22:23] But it will also encompass harms against others online so cyberbullying, hate crimes, misinformation

[00:22:33] so it's incredibly wide ranging whether it will stay as wide ranging or will be narrowed down during the next year or so remains to be seen.

[00:22:42] Australia under the e-safety commissioner have been the first country in the world to create such legislation

[00:22:48] the EU are now creating similar legislation what is clear from having been in this area of work for in excess of 10 years

[00:22:58] is that there does need to be a level of legislation because it is never going to be enough to just ask people to follow guidance

[00:23:05] or ask tech companies to do what is the moral responsibility.

[00:23:10] So that legislation really does need to be in place for example to mandate them to search for known child sexual abuse on their platforms.

[00:23:18] The typical laws that we talk about they don't work in this space.

[00:23:22] In fact in India what we also kind of have been pushing through cyber peace foundation being a policy think tank as well is like the IT Act needs to be changed.

[00:23:32] It needs to have the version 2 which I'm sure the government is working on it and we'll soon see the version 2 of the IT Act

[00:23:38] because the IT Act 2000 which got amended in 2008 is not good enough to kind of counter all these things or these crimes.

[00:23:46] All the international crimes happen they have to go through a formal process like the LR and the MLAD process.

[00:23:52] An MLAD process for example if there's a case which involves a foreign IP or some details that one has to procure from a foreign country

[00:23:59] they have to go through the route and which requires court order and it's the processes kind of complex reaching out to CBICBA then reaches out to Interpol

[00:24:07] Interpol then reaches out to the unit in that country and then the data comes back to the same channel.

[00:24:13] Now our assessments earlier was it takes around 6 months for an agency to get data from a foreign territory which now has been increased.

[00:24:22] In fact in the recent times it has gone up to 9 months, 9 to 10 months it takes for the law enforcement agency to get data from a foreign territory

[00:24:31] which is a big challenge. This is a dynamic space within seconds things change.

[00:24:35] Now if you get data in 10 months time from a foreign territory it's useless to you and it's useless for the victim and the police also cannot do much

[00:24:44] to get justice to the victim or to recover that victim.

[00:24:48] Alongside legislation the infrastructure that law enforcement works with must also be frequently upgraded.

[00:24:57] Vinit tells us what the situation in India is like at present.

[00:25:02] Government of India now in fact has understood the power of technology. In fact it's not that before they were not aware but then now they are making good use of technology.

[00:25:15] In fact if technology today is posing a challenge technology only has a solution. That's what I'd like to say and basically the latest set of tools techniques using AI, ML and all the crawlers, dark web crawlers and everything

[00:25:30] technology that exists. There was an operation that CBI did just around 5-6 months back.

[00:25:36] It was a very successful operation in which in fact the recovery also happened along with there are a lot of criminals who were caught.

[00:25:44] Those who were kind of using different platforms and all making those content viral of child getting abused exploited.

[00:25:51] People predators who are kind of posting these videos in different forums.

[00:25:55] So a complete exercise was done making use of cyber making use of tech tools and analysis of different platforms groups and forums.

[00:26:02] And after that CBI did a complete Pan India exercise.

[00:26:05] Sorry operation to kind of reach out to these particular criminals, catch hold of them and then thereafter put them into proper trials.

[00:26:13] So many more operations like this is required. In fact state level also I see now there are agencies like for example Kerala police set up cyber dome through that a lot of initiatives are happening.

[00:26:24] Maharashtra police has Maharashtra cyber Rajasthan police also has done something they've set up the center of excellence.

[00:26:30] We have also been collaborating with Rajasthan police to set up the COE same is happening with Gujarat police.

[00:26:35] So every state now is kind of understanding that technology is a way out and that's what they have to be one step ahead.

[00:26:43] Police needs to be taught about the latest that is there.

[00:26:46] They need to conduct operations on the surface web and also the dark web, which is like the underground market of cyber.

[00:26:53] And in order to investigate the care they need to equip themselves whether it is resources, whether it is tools, whether it is processes.

[00:27:00] Everything needs to be automated and people need to be skilled at all levels to kind of handle these kinds of crimes.

[00:27:13] So what is the kind of tech that law enforcement businesses and individuals can rely on to curb cases of online trafficking and sexual exploitation?

[00:27:24] It's exciting to see the developments and innovations taking place in this field across the world.

[00:27:29] Let's first hear Julie tell us a little bit more about some of the solution UT offers and their various practical applications.

[00:27:38] We started in this area having a whole suite of identity verification approaches and we started to have several age verification approaches.

[00:27:54] And what we saw was that there were many scenarios from organizations that needed to provide age appropriate access to different goods and services.

[00:28:05] And over time, we've seen this could be in many different sectors from say adult content sectors or dating or social media, live streaming, gambling,

[00:28:16] access to age restricted goods and services like tobacco or etc.

[00:28:22] And what we saw was that the age approaches that we were developing could support in many different contexts,

[00:28:29] could let an individual prove that they were old enough to do something or a child prove that they were young enough to do something.

[00:28:36] Or a child to say there's an indecent image, I am definitely a child I'd like to apply to remove this image.

[00:28:43] So over time we saw that there were more and more different scenarios.

[00:28:48] One was that the age assurance approaches we developed because they could work at high volume,

[00:28:54] could also support for instance law enforcement to assess the age of a victim and the age of a perpetrator in CSAM material.

[00:29:02] And we're now seeing more and more approaches.

[00:29:05] Could this be used in a dating site to check that this really is an 18 year old that is wanting to meet other 18 plus versus an 8 or 10 year old

[00:29:15] that is maybe trying to have some extra income or we want to avoid that an adult could be looking for 10 to 14 year olds near me.

[00:29:25] So we've developed a whole range of solutions, some can be used by platforms on a software as a service basis.

[00:29:31] And we also for instance have a facial age estimation that could be included in the device so a child maybe couldn't share outbound and nude image,

[00:29:41] either through coercion or volition.

[00:29:44] And we see that there are more and more applications of the different age approaches and identity approaches that we've developed.

[00:29:52] Yoti lets people prove either who they are or how old they are.

[00:29:56] And one of the issues that we know can happen when people are forced to move, forced migration or have a coercive partner is that their identity documents might be taken away from them.

[00:30:07] So one of the things that Yoti offers is a safe place to actually have a backup of your identity documents if you're lucky enough to possess them.

[00:30:15] So in their Yoti they can take a selfie, they can add that document, we allow documents from over 200 countries in the world to be uploaded.

[00:30:25] And then we separate or shard all the different elements of data on that document but we give the individual the private key on their device and they have a backup key.

[00:30:36] And after that they can just share their over 18 say with a dating or adult site or if they're a minor share their under 18 attribute.

[00:30:45] But it's devised to be the opposite of mass surveillance.

[00:30:48] So Yoti doesn't know what Julia or Lena would do on a day-to-day basis.

[00:30:52] Only you can pull back the attributes and know what you have shared with whom.

[00:30:58] This could also maybe help on a peer-to-peer basis.

[00:31:00] So if for instance you'd been resident in Ukraine, you might have been trying to find a safe passage as a mum with children out of the country.

[00:31:08] And how do you know that the person you're meeting is actually a taxi driver and not somebody with other intentions?

[00:31:14] So one of the things that you could do is a peer-to-peer check through Yoti.

[00:31:20] Now Tom gives us an outline of Safe2Net's work, how its solutions use AI and what they are currently developing.

[00:31:35] We create solutions which are designed to protect children online and we recognise that our solutions are part of a bigger ecosystem of ways to protect children.

[00:31:45] So one of those key ways is through using artificial intelligence, machine learning to try and target the more nuanced online behaviours.

[00:31:55] So just to expand on that.

[00:31:56] Sometimes it's relatively easy to block visual content of children being abused, but often it's a lot harder to actually try to prevent, analyse and detect more nuanced behaviours so that can be conversation.

[00:32:11] So we will try to use machine learning to do that.

[00:32:15] And also a key point, we use machine learning to try to create solutions that can sit on device, so they can sit at device level.

[00:32:24] And actually in real time detect threat on the child's device rather than having to rely on external software and also very costly means of identifying behaviour that's taken place.

[00:32:38] So if it's happening on a device, the aim being that this can be used by any child who has a mobile phone for example.

[00:32:45] So if it detects behaviour that it has been taught to recognise as the early stages of grooming for example, then it will look to intervene.

[00:32:53] And this intervention is not about getting the child in trouble, reporting to the child's parents or trying to get anybody in trouble with the police.

[00:33:01] This is all about trying to say to the child in this example, you might want to stop here.

[00:33:08] The behaviour you're involved in or the person who's talking to you are displaying signs that in our experience are the early stages of grooming for example or trafficking.

[00:33:19] One of the solutions that we're deep into developing at the moment, we hope protect so many children that we won't be able to say how many children it's going to protect.

[00:33:28] So we're developing a solution that in real time on the child's device can prevent them from being coerced into sharing content of themselves naked.

[00:33:38] It's one of the biggest areas, one of the most significant rises. The Internet Watch Foundation in the UK for example will tell us that this has gone up astronomically over the last couple of years.

[00:33:50] So we're going to create a solution that will prevent them doing that straight away. Again it's not about criminalising the child in any way at all.

[00:33:58] It's about stopping them doing something that they've been coerced into doing and then at the same time educating them on their device as to the reasons why this may be harmful for them.

[00:34:09] One of the advantages of tech is that we can to an extent determine its impact in a given situation. Julie and Tom report the positive real world effects of their tools.

[00:34:26] So over 12 million people around the world so far have set up the reusable Yoti Digital Identity app. On the age front in the last 18 months or so we've done over 500 million age checks.

[00:34:47] So this could be that a law enforcement body is wanting to check and ascertain the age of a victim or perpetrator on a CSAM image.

[00:34:56] It could be a dating or an adult site that wanting to check that it has over 18s only on that site.

[00:35:03] Could be a social site that maybe has an area just for teenagers where to prevent grooming they don't want 55 year olds interacting with teens.

[00:35:13] So there are many different circumstances with this can help set up age appropriate environments so that the companies can then look at what is the right content moderation.

[00:35:23] What is the right support for this age demographic.

[00:35:27] So one of the solutions that we safety net as a company own is a more traditional parental monitoring style solution called net nanny which is well known particularly in the United States.

[00:35:37] So about six months ago we expanded usage of this to another country within about two weeks of the expanded use of this solution.

[00:35:46] It helped to identify a very young child who was the victim of grooming and physical abuse by a family member.

[00:35:54] And this only took place because the child and the parent had begun to use one of our solutions to look at their online behavior and to try and help and safeguard them online.

[00:36:07] Unfortunately the distribution of tech is not equitable across the world or even within a country.

[00:36:16] Different states in India for example have various levels of tech infrastructure at the disposal whether it's for law enforcement or civil society organizations.

[00:36:27] Vinit tells us how the Cyber Peace Foundation aims to bridge this gap.

[00:36:40] One thing that we did was basically since we are a cyber enabled organization whatever work we do is on cyber and we are a bunch of technologists who are there with the main intent to support organizations.

[00:36:54] Those who don't have this kind of capability.

[00:36:56] So what we did was in fact last year 2020 is when we collaborated with certain organizations anti trafficking organization and what we said that will be your support system when it comes to cyber.

[00:37:10] So for example if they used to get any lead from the ground like any WhatsApp number or any link of a group or a website if they feel that there's something fishy all this content was being shared to us.

[00:37:22] A group of bunch of techies and experts who are there ethical hackers who are there they kind of used to analyze the content see the kind of network that they had whether social media or whether web network whether phone numbers whatever technical inputs and leads we used to get we used to do a thorough analysis of that.

[00:37:39] Then kind of share a report a quick report with these anti trafficking organization if you find anything fishy none all that and together we had been able to kind of create a big impact in collaboration with the

[00:37:52] anti trafficking organization and secondly now with the South Asia Cyberpiece Cooperation Council SAC 3 coming into picture.

[00:37:59] Now we are trying to forge an international collaboration as well so more and more cooperation happens and we can become like the backbone of the other anti trafficking organization organization for fighting CSAM to kind of provide adequate support to them also

[00:38:13] adequate support to the law enforcement also sometimes because not all law enforcement are equipped properly so that's what some of the activities that we are doing plus awareness that we are doing with organizations like with the Missing Links Foundation in

[00:38:27] factor with Ministry of Education. All of that is extremely important today because prevention I feel is much much better than we're going to the investigation.

[00:38:37] Prevention is what Tom has been advocating for he elaborates on why he believes nipping the problem in the bud is the way to go.

[00:38:58] When we talk about say those 4.7 million NECMEC referrals that have to go to law enforcement I know from my previous law enforcement career that law enforcement around the world have too much content already to try and address so I very much see my role in

[00:39:14] the prevention and preventive tech company to create solutions that mean that law enforcement can focus on the most serious cases because by removing the others you're trying to remove some of the crime that's very preventable so that they really can focus so I will never forget the fact that I came from a law

[00:39:32] enforcement background and know how difficult it was to investigate these so I want to work with law enforcement government but organization such yourself as well because the prevention message in the education is the only way that you're going to stem the flow of reports

[00:39:48] that you have to prevent first before moving to the enforcement stage as well so preventions everything and I mean the very preventive area like I say at the moment is stopping children being coerced into sharing content themselves because that can often be the precursor for even more serious offending such as full

[00:40:10] grooming or even trafficking as well where a child is coerced into sharing the initial content and then that is almost used to blackmail them to do further things as well.

[00:40:22] Finally, Vinit, Tom and Julie share some parting words on solutions impact and a hope for change.

[00:40:41] Like I was mentioning that as Cyberpeace and Missinglings Foundation both of us we are kind of collaborating one great initiative is this one to kind of make a standard curriculum on school safety and do a lot more on the prevention so that these schools children they understand the basic science most of them don't even know that they are being groomed because they are unaware about the different patterns and

[00:41:07] signs of getting groomed but to this kind of curriculum so we can reach out to the maximum schools reach out to these educational institutions educators students and make them aware about things that can happen to them it can happen with anyone by the way it's not something that people and students from economically weaker sections of the society can only be groomed or can only be traffic.

[00:41:28] It can happen with a well to do family also anybody I mean our children can also be groomed and trafficked one is we need to invest a lot here because people are not aware on the ground and we need to do much more getting nct getting cbsc getting ministry of education on board to kind of push content through different channels

[00:41:46] different mediums we should kind of get state governments also involved so that the education gets pushed to say government at its schools and all that where people are from not well to do families so it has to be a combination of all even making you the web 3.0 to kind of push each appropriate content like on the content on the metaverse where people can understand how metaverse is how life in metaverse is and how people can target you on the metaverse so all of that need to be done.

[00:42:16] The content should be engaging not boring nobody reads those and loads today on the research and also we need to constantly research about the new pattern of crime the new m off crime and then find out the ways on how this can be counter like and that's what we are trying to do that building up the right tools making use of AI making use of crawlers trying to identify such images.

[00:42:40] Trashing those images then kind of making sure that these images are not replicated getting that content taken down and that is only possible when you have these alliances with different organizations working in this space so that the content doesn't get disseminated because if you take down a content now somebody might be having a replica of that content and that person can put that content in some other space so it has to be a very very proactive approach.

[00:43:05] You don't want to get to the stage where people are scared to use tech tools because they're so fearful of what's going on and that's where I think prevention and education are so important because with good education, good technical and educational prevention we can all operate online in a safe way.

[00:43:27] So I would always say to people don't be scared of being online but just make sure that you protect yourself in a similar way you wouldn't get in a car and not consider putting your seatbelt on or understanding the safety features of an airplane before you got on it.

[00:43:42] I think it's important that parents themselves look at a whole range of elements for their children. They want to obviously have that communication and understand the issues that their children are facing, build resilience but absolutely look at the tools that can safeguard.

[00:43:58] And on the age approaches in many more settings parents will be seeing themselves maybe giving parental consent to an organization like LEGO that they might be asked are you old enough to be the parent or is this actually a child pretending to be the parent?

[00:44:13] On a social site it could be for instance at the moment on Meta or Instagram if a child is trying to say that they're over 18 one of the methods it could use is Yoti's facial age estimation is this really someone over 18 that is changing their age on their profile.

[00:44:30] Sites around the world are looking at what are the best ways that are proportionate that are previously preserving that let people prove either age or identity and that's one of the areas we keep working on and hope that our solutions can conserve.

[00:44:44] And lastly we have one of our own, Prabir from Missing talking about the impact of our groundwork in the Sundarbans.

[00:44:58] In the Kultuli block we run a women empowerment training center and youth group in the Gurugurya, Bhubaneshwari, Gram Panchayat.

[00:45:12] The government ran a survey on child marriage and teenage pregnancies where they took place the most how many have taken place and why.

[00:45:22] As per the results the Gurugurya, Bhubaneshwari, Panchayat where missing works showed the lowest numbers.

[00:45:29] There was a Panchayat where 357 child marriages and 250 teenage pregnancies took place but in the Gurugurya, Bhubaneshwari, Panchayat there were no teenage pregnancies.

[00:45:41] On further analysis by the BDO and government on why the numbers in our area were so low it could be inferred that the reasons behind all of these good changes were our MASSSP program, our youth program, our community motivation program and the network we have created.

[00:46:00] And that's how we've managed to make a huge change in the community by involving everyone, girls, boys, families and the communities as we move forward together.

[00:46:12] Involving everyone as Prabir said, the children, their families, communities, civil society organizations, law enforcement, the judiciary, the government, corporates, tech companies in India as well as with countries around the world.

[00:46:38] That's how we'll do it together.

[00:46:41] Our vision is that one day we'll see a world where no child ever has to go through trafficking or sexual exploitation.

[00:46:49] My sincerest thanks to Prabir Mishra, Julie Dawson, Tom Farrell and Vinit Kumar for their invaluable insights and I commend the work you all do.

[00:47:00] I would also like to thank you, the listeners of the missing podcast.

[00:47:04] Whether you've listened to one episode or all of them, the first step as we at the MissingLink Trust believe is awareness.

[00:47:13] To know, to understand and to take action.

[00:47:16] Thank you for your time.

[00:47:18] I hope you're now more informed about the issues you've spoken about on the show.

[00:47:23] I'm your host, Leena Kejriwal.

[00:47:25] Do check out our work at SaveMissingGirls.com, follow us on Instagram and Twitter at MissingGirls.

[00:47:32] And if you'd like to get in touch with us, send us an email to reachusatSaveMissingGirls.com.