Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Online in Bangladesh: The Challenges of the Internet and Law and Legal Developments

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This chapter deals with the issues of online child sexual abuse and exploitation in Bangladesh. It examines the global nature of this problem, nature and prevalence of online child sexual abuse in Bangladesh, and Bangladesh’s advances in law and legal instruments to curb and control online child sexual abuse. Out of the world’s 7.4 billion people, 3.4 billion (about 46.1 percent) are connected to the Internet. In 1995, only about 1 percent of the world population used the Internet. From 1999 to 2013, the number of Internet users has increased tenfold. This emerging and expanding the state of global connectivity has indeed brought a qualitatively new and a different civilization – a civilization that has opened up unprecedented possibilities for expanding science, technology, development, and democracy on a global scale. The increased global connectivity, however, has also brought the possibilities of many new global crimes and criminality, and one of the most destructive of them is the online child sexual abuse and exploitation such as child pornography, commercial sexual exploitation of children; cyber-enticement, solicitation, and grooming; cyber-bullying, cyber-harassment, and cyber-stalking. As Bangladesh is becoming increasingly connected through the Internet and more mobile devices and connections are being added, all of these different forms of online child sexual abuse are rapidly growing. The Government of Bangladesh has recently enacted a number of legislations to curb and control the spread of online child sexual abuse such as the Prevention of Domestic Violence Act 2010, National Child Labor Elimination Policy of 2010, National Children Policy of 2011, Pornography Control Act 2012, Human Trafficking Deterrence and Suppression Act 2012, and The Children Act 2013. In addition to these laws, there is also a need for more innovations in software and technology, and more involvement of the civil society as a whole to control the spread of this destructive scourge of the emerging digital age on children.