Generally the legal age of consent is considered to be age 16 and above for all genders and sexual orientations, but certain exceptions apply, including that of sex with someone with a mental disability and other factors. South Africa has a somewhat complex regulation when it comes to the legal age of consent for sex or any related sexual act. The ages of consent to sex (or any sexual act) in South Africa and their complications Introduction 3 Homosexuality (LGBTI) and gender discrimination.2 Mandatory reporting of sexual offences.1.10 Sex with someone mentally disabled.1.9 Ages 18 and above (and other related consequences).1 The ages of consent to sex (or any sexual act) in South Africa and their complications.Victims, or the parents of abused minors, also receive legal notices when their images are found during investigations, serving as constant reminders of their pain. Online offenders are known to seek out children in the photos and videos, even into adulthood. “For victims of child sexual abuse,” The Times reported two weeks ago, “the recirculating imagery can cause lasting trauma. Because of the redactions, it is not clear what the boy had manufactured or how–it is not clear whose children were abused–but he is charged with one count of manufacturing. The youngest children were 2 to 4 years old, the oldest was 9. Based on the numerous statements redacted from the arrest report–the sheriff’s office routinely redacts self-incriminating confessions–he then proceeded to explain much of what he had done online.Īll the images and videos collected depicted pre-pubescent children, some of them in sexually explicit poses, some of them in the act of being sexually abused, one of them in a sexual act with an animal. His mother granted permission, and at one point the boy requested to speak with the detective without his mother present, which his mother also allowed. The detective sought to speak with the boy. That was not what the detectives were concerned with. The other adult told authorities that he looks at legal “teen porn,” using apps on his phone. The child’s mother was at the house, as was the boy and at least one other adult. 23 in the Mondex with other detectives and assistance from the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office. He subpoenaed phone records, obtaining search warrants to search the records along the way, then got a search warrant, which was served on Jan.
We will remove such content and take appropriate action, which may include disabling accounts and reporting to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and law enforcement.” This includes all child sexual abuse imagery (even cartoon images) and all content that presents children in a sexual manner. None of this should have been a surprise to the boy: Google Photos’ user content and conduct policy explicitly states: “Do not upload or share content that exploits or abuses children. Google was further able to link the images to the type of camera that snapped them–in this case, a Motorola Moto E5 Play that was found among the boy’s possessions. Google’s tip connected the user’s account to a phone number, an IP address and several names, two of them the child’s parents, one of them the child himself, who also spends time in Jacksonville. The center had itself gotten a report from Google, which had detected child pornography uploaded to Google Photos, its powerful image database and repository available to individual users for storage and classification. Lashbrook got the tip about the allegations involving the 15 year old boy from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, according to the boy’s arrest report. Cloaking mechanisms online are enabling users and manufacturers of child sexual abuse imagery to be almost immune to detection, enabling them to operate with impunity, the investigation found. Videos now outnumber images, with Facebook reporting almost 85 percent of the total, among 164 companies reporting findings (including Snapchat, Twitter, Google and Yahoo). “Technology companies reported a record 45 million online photos and videos of the abuse last year,” The New York Times reported last September at the beginning of the paper’s ongoing investigation of what it terms a crisis “at a breaking point,” with tech companies, government and police no match for the online trade.Įarlier this month, the paper reported that the number of photos and videos had grown 50 percent in the past year, with 70 million images and videos reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, an agency that works with governments. The initial tip was sent to the sheriff’s detective Dennis Lashbrook, who’s in charge of the agency’s relatively new cyber crimes unit focused on child sexual abuse, which has been growing exponentially online.