Seven months ago, a woman in her mid-twenties sexually abused her nine-year-old sister. She also took pictures, made abusive videos by stripping the sister naked and sent it to her boyfriend, via Gmail.

In the same week, while she was sending explicit content through email, the police cyber bureau in Bhotahity received an AI-generated notification about child pornographic content from Google, which actively scans images that pass through Gmail accounts to see if they match child pornography.

“You can’t imagine that an elder sister can do such things to her small sibling, and send it to her boyfriend,” said Pashupati Kumar Ray, the bureau’s spokesman.

After two months of investigation, the bureau found that the woman was from Bhaktapur, where the two siblings were living with their mother, a widow. Later, when the police arrested the woman, they discovered that she was the family’s sole breadwinner.

“The woman has been kept in custody, and a rape case has been filed against her,” said Ray.

In another case, a 20-year-old man and a 13-year-old girl become friends through an online gaming app, FreeFire, where multiple players can play as they verbally interact. The online gaming app developed by Garena for Android and iOS was in 2019 the most downloaded mobile game globally.

As they played online, they exchanged phone numbers and started to communicate through Facebook messenger. Later, the two met and the man raped the girl.

As time passed, the man started calling the girl to continue their physical relationship, and when the girl refused, he threatened to send her nude pictures and videos to her relatives and parents. Eventually, the girl ignored the man’s advances. As he had threatened, the man posted her nude videos on social media.

“The girl came to cyber bureau with her mother to file a complaint, but we told her to lodge a rape case,” said Ray.

These are two cases of how underaged children are being sexually abused through the internet. According to data provided by the cyber bureau, this fiscal year alone, 110 cases of online sexual abuse have so far been registrered.

The bureau has in the past three years received 460 cases of online sexual abuse of children.

“The issue of sexual abuse of children and teenagers is getting serious by the day,” said Ray.

Officials say the best way to prevent children from online abuse is for the parents to limit their internet use. The longer they are online, the greater their chances of facing online violence such as cyberbullying, sextortion and honey trapping.

Not only in Nepal but globally too children and teenagers are being victimised online.

Children are becoming prone to cyber risks as the internet becomes an integral part of their lives. Most parents allow their children to use cellphones in their leisure time.

According to a survey conducted by the DQ Institute, an international think tank dedicated to setting global standards for digital intelligence education, three in four children worldwide experienced at least one cyber-risk last year.

The institute’s study in 2022 found 50 percent of children and adolescents across the surveyed countries were affected by cyber-bullying, while around 40 percent experienced cyber threats and 25 percent were exposed to violent and sexual content.

“Nepal is more vulnerable to children-related cyber crimes,” said cyber security expert Bijay Limbu, who is also the chief executive officer at Vairav Technology.

“We don’t have an Act to protect children online, so those who abuse children over the internet can easily escape,” said Limbu.

Even the Ministry of Women, Children, and Senior Citizens in 2021 approved and put in place the Online Child Protection Procedure, 2021, with a view to curbing online abuses of minors. But that has so far been ineffective.

The Child Protection Procedure says it is the duty of internet service providers to implement measures to restrict children’s access to harmful or adult content on the internet.

Earlier, the Nepal Telecommunications Authority had also brought ‘Guidelines for Parents, Guardians, and Educators on Child Online Protection’, in order to cut the probable risks of the internet as reported by the news website onlinekhabar, but it is unclear how effective the guidelines have been.

Experts say lack of awareness among parents about the harm caused by online content, and absence of proper law to monitor online sexual abuses are proving to be major problems.

“If you look at developed countries, children there don’t have access to adult or gaming content. The law does not permit it, but in Nepal, giving children cell phones and the internet is seen as the best way to keep them engaged, and they can easily stray on to any website,” said Limbu.

The US Privacy Protection Act of 1988 , under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), imposes specific requirements on operations of websites and online services to protect the privacy of children under the age of 13.

However, in Nepal, it has almost become a norm for parents to give their cell phones to children. Many children are addicted to gaming apps such as Pubg, Fortnite Battle Royal, and Counter Strike. These are mediums, say experts, that can victimise children sexually.

Those working in the field of child protection and advocacy for child rights, say the risk is aggravated by inadequate response mechanisms, weak law enforcement and lack of awareness on safe use of the internet among children and their parents.

Anil Raghuvanshi, founder of ChildSafeNet, a non-governmental organisation established with a mission to make digital technology safer for children, said the government must take the initiative to make the internet safe for children.

“To do so, the government should include internet safety courses in school curricula. Nepal should then set up police cyber bureaus in all provinces, and build capacities of the district police offices to probe online crimes against children,” said Raghuvanshi.

The parents themselves need to learn about online safety and guide their children accordingly, added Raghuvanshi. “The children should be encouraged to share their online experiences and support should be provided when there is evidence that they are experiencing online harm.”