Many parents might have grown up with the adage “children should not speak to strangers”, but nowadays “stranger danger” lurks within the device in the palm of your child’s hand.
If your child has a cellphone there is a very real chance they could fall prey to sexual predators and cyberbullies, says WO Jan Coetzee from the provincial serial and electronic FCS investigation (Seci) unit, a specialised section within the unit for family violence, child protection and sexual offences (FCS) of the police service.
Coetzee ellaborated on the dangers of technology at a Kuils River spiritual crime prevention meeting attended by church leaders and local police officers in Sarepta last week.
Spiritual crime prevention is a community-based approach that was established by the national police commissioner in 2019 with an aim to address different crimes prevalent in communities.
The Kuils River spiritual crime prevention unit was established in 2021.
Current chair, Pastor Themba Barnies from New Hope Christian Church and a retired police colonel, said “the church has been saying to government for years to involve the church.”
“We see the community on a daily basis. We can make an impact and assist the police to reduce crime”.
Barnies said from his police experience attending to complaints he often realised there was no need to open a case but that people only needed assistance or someone to talk to.
Barnies invited Coetzee – whom he came into contact with looking for someone to address learners at a school where he detected “drugs, pornography and social media crime” – to the meeting.
Not often reported
Coetzee said the Seci unit concentrates on sexual offences that involve children and where electronic media, such as cellphones, flash drives and computers, are used.
“Sometimes we receive information, most times from the office of the FBI in Pretoria. With their help we identify IP addresses (a unique address that identifies a device on the internet or a local network) in the Western Cape. Then we get warrants of arrest, visit those homes and arrest (the perpetrators), if necessary.”
Coetzee said his unit had been successful with several identified cases but many of these crimes are not reported to police.
“We’ve discovered some of our suspects are children as young as 10 – male and female.”
Coetzee said because of the number of cases they decided to act proactively and visit schools with help of the Films and Publication Board to speak about the danger of cellphones, specifically cyberbullying.
“As soon as children discover phones – especially if they come from poor households and there is family violence in the house – children think the world on Instagram or the world on Facebook is the perfect world to live in. They confuse that world with the current situation. In that world are paedophiles – people who hunt for our children.”
Coetzee told of children (in a poor community) who sell pornography to rich people who pay money into their e-wallets.
At a school “with affluent parents” he recently visited, they discovered groups of children exchanging pornography among each other.
“You will get two or three boys who would groom three or four girls to send them (explicit) pics. The boys will then send this on in their WhatsApp groups.”
Coetzee said this tendency can be found in schools in all areas.
“It is in poor and affluent communities – the story is the same, it’s just the modus that changes.”
He told of boys who abuse their popularity as sportsmen among teenage girls to get them to send photographs.
Coetzee encouraged the church leaders to talk to parents.
“We find parents are using phones to ‘guard’ their children. If the child is in his room with his phone, you think they are off the street, safely at home, but you don’t know what your child is exposed to and whom they meet online.
“Our children value themselves on the followers they have on Instagram.” Coetzee explained a child from a privileged background can go places and post interesting things to keep followers entertained, but children in poorer communities also want to be part of this world to dissociate them from a reality where there might be family violence, drug abuse, divorce and broken families.”
Coetzee explained how children are drawn in after accepting a friend request.
“This person shows an intense interest in them, they ask what the child is doing during the day. How was school? What friends did you meet, where do you live? They get an inside view of the workings of this child’s mind.”
Coetzee said a 67-year-old man posing as a 14-year-old can use his vast life experience to convince a child to send him a photo.
“He just wants to see the top, then he convinces the child to show the rest of their body. Once the child sends a picture, she’s hooked because now he says, if you don’t send me another, I post this.”
Its a downward spiral that has led to children committing suicide as they couldn’t see a way out.
Talk to children
In another case a person sent a photo of a naked woman to a school boy and invited him to send something “nice” back.
“He sent a photo of his private part and 15 minutes later the person wanted R15 000 or else the photo would go onto his Instagram account. The child stole the money from his father.”
These predators can also operate as part of cartels said Coetzee.
He told of a woman who paid R1,3 million over a period of three months to the “Italian architect” she met on Facebook.
The sexual offences they deal with operate similar to these Facebook scams, he said.
“All they need to do is get into your child’s mind, sooner or later your child sends a picture.
“These pictures are very valuable – a picture of a naked 13-year-old child reaches up to R9 000 on the black market – the dark web where you can order anything.”
“A boy in the southern suburbs sold a pic of his private part for R2 000. That was just a middleman buying it – once it escalates to people who love those kinds of pics, the price is higher.”
Coetzee warned if parents allow their children to have a cellphone it should not be in the child’s room at night. “There should be no password and you must ensure there are no hidden files.”
“I’ve heard too many times from parents, ‘not my son sir’, until I show them the pictures.”
Coetzee advised parents to ask their children about their day. If there is regular communication parents will be able to detect when something is wrong. Parents should never overreact to what the child says as this will discourage them to communicate honestly.
“We must be really sensitive to what our children are saying and what we are doing 24/7.”
Sgt Pieter du Toit said he was aware of cyberbullying but after listening to Coetzee he realised he did not know ”how these things run”.
Station commander of Kuils River police, Col Jayce Naidoo said we are living in a sick society. He mentioned two cases that happened locally – a father who raped his daughter and a mother who threw boiling water over her child.
Naidoo said the biggest challenge to society is changing the mindset of people and this is why the police need churches to get involved.
“We engaged already – churches are mobilizing against crime doing one on ones. We have councillors at the police station that does two debriefing sessions on victims of crime. They cannot do more than two sessions. My proposal was that we refer them to the churches.”
