Many young girls are foolishly falling prey to the international child porn racket now active in the country, luring the minors to send pornographic photographs, private messages and videos to trap them into illicit net of the clique.
It has been assumed that the porn racket is taking the advantage of cyber grooming of the very young- the newest threat in a booming online child pornography that has reached an alarming proportion.
According to law enforcers, nearly a thousand youth and teenagers in the country silently have fallen into the clutches of the international pornography cycle.
Recently, Cyber Crime Investigation Unit of the Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) has started an investigation after receiving such information in the confessional statements after arresting three Bangladeshi youths’ involvement with international pornography.
Ishtiaq Ahmed, senior assistant commissioner of Police at CTTC, said, “Int’l pornography racket members Borhan Uddin (26), Abdullah Al-Mahmud (25) and Avi Hossain (25)- they are all students of different private universities. They were arrested on special drive on October 15th from Shahjahanpur, Pallabi and Rampura areas of the capital.”
He also mentioned that the youths hid their identities and got acquainted with various adolescents and adult girls from home and abroad. On next phase they collect nude contents by encouraging children to engage in anti-social activities through various social media and websites and promotes that multimedia vulgar contents on various websites, he added.
He emphasized that, they are working relentlessly to stop these cybercriminals. But awareness at the individual level is vital.
According to CTTC, the process of testing the recovered digital devices from these youths has been started and subject to the permission of the court to identify the members of the pornography ring. It is being investigated that each of the groups and members are involved in Bangladesh.
An official from the Digital Forensics Department of the Cyber Crime Investigation wishing anonymity said that, an American, and eight other Bangladeshi young women have also lodged complaints against members of the international pornography ring with us.
The official also said these allegations are being seriously investigated. Arrested Borhan, a student at a private university in Dhaka, met an 11-year-old girl in the United States on Instagram five years ago. Later, taking the advantages of friendship, Borhan took nude photos of the girl. Then the teen realized that she has fallen into a pornography ring.
With the help of her parents the girl from the United States informed the CTTC's Cyber Crime Investigation Division through Facebook.
Cyber security expert at private software farm at the capital Mohammad Al Faruk said, “Teenagers particularly college and university goers become target of these groups. Parental control, digital literacy and moral obligation is necessary in this case.”
Without knowing anybody over social media or any other platform, nothing personal should be shared. If they share and realize the mistake, immediately they must inform the matter to police to look into the issue. Due to social harassment many these days do not even inform the law enforcers, he added.
