Keyboard predators: SE Asia's kids targeted by online paedophiles

Southeast Asia is in the grip of a fresh surge of paedophile activity with predators orchestrating and watching abuse on live-streaming sites and via webcams, and paying for it with near-untraceable cryptocurrency, victims and children's charities warn. With widespread poverty, lax laws, and creaking judicial systems, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, and the Philippines have long been seen as soft spots by foreign and local paedophiles seeking out underage sex in person. Tougher policing and greater awareness has deterred some offenders, but technology has shifted the patterns of abuse in a region with growing access to broadband internet and encrypted technology. Paedophiles can now use an array of mobile and online tools -- including social networks, video-sharing sites, and the dark web -- to direct and watch child rape and sexual abuse with anonymity, experts warn. "Predators watch the rapes on large platforms that are not likely to close," said Francois Xavier Souchet, of ...

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