The COVID-19 outbreak has sparked an increase in online child sexual predators that organizations, governments and parents need to take more seriously, says the head of the United Nations children’s agency. “We’ve got a couple of worrying signs, which is that the online predators are really — they’re multiplying,” Henrietta Fore, UNICEF’s executive director, said in a wide-ranging interview with The Canadian Press this week.
With half the planet’s children now out of school because of the pandemic, Fore said that has created new risks for kids who are now spending more time on the internet. “Because children are online more, they are vulnerable.