Pakistani teenager Zara Shah was targeted by a stranger while playing a computer game, drawn into a conversation that would expose her to terrifying online sexual exploitation.
“We started chatting while playing an online game, and he began acting like a friend. Zara, whose name has been changed by AFP for safety reasons, is one of an estimated 1.5 million children in Pakistan who experienced online sexual abuse in one year, according to a report published by the UN children’s agency this month. Later, he wanted to meet and, after, started asking me for nudes,” 17-year-old Shah said. Around 85 percent of perpetrators were known to the victims, aged between 12 and 17, according to the UNICEF report.
“Perpetrators may spend months building trust using information that they find on social media,” Kardefelt said.
In Muslim-majority Pakistan, 71 percent of victims did not tell anyone, according to the UNICEF report, while no child surveyed reported the abuse through formal channels — including police, helplines or social workers. Echoing other policies around the world, the provincial government in Punjab this month passed a resolution to bar children under 16 from using social media.
“I could have been stopped from going to school or leaving the house altogether,” she said. “I disagree with the ban,” said Usama Khilji, a digital rights activist.
