Sexting and sextortion have been identified as some of the rapidly emerging forms of Gender Based Violence.
Plan international Area Manager and Education Advisor Caroline Ruro describes sexting as the art of sending sexual messages to a different party while sextortion as the practice of extorting money or sexual favours by threatening to reveal evidence of their sexual activity.
According to Ruoro, many young girls have fallen victim to such forms of violence that are rapidly emerging as a result of the growing online freedom.
Ruoro has however stated that it is about time that parents accepted the reality and known that times have changed so have forms of violence.
“Sexting and sextortion are as a result of a lot of online freedom and we want to protect them from such incidences whereby they should know that, that is not a good thing, it’s a vice,” said Ruoro.
“I will give you an example, if you are my child and you cannot show what you are texting, then there is a problem,” she explained.
She has urged parents to closely monitor their children’s online activity just to help ensure their protection.
“So how do we protect the children from it? The children should understand what is good in terms of online content and we also need the parents to come out and say this is what is happening with my child so that they are not being defensive,” said Ruoro.
Ruoro speaking during a three day training of police officers on Gender Based Violence.
Some of the aspects of training touched on how police offiecrs should conduct interviews at the police station on victims of GBV.
“They taught how to interview the victims to ensure that the victims are not victimsed again. The police should be in a position to understand somebody, understand what they are going through and even be able to refer them to the necessary facilities,” said Ruoro.
