By Mabinty M. Kamara
Women and children’s rights campaigners in Sierra Leone have strongly condemned a pornographic video that is been circulated on social media involving a minor.
On Sunday, a video was leaked on social media showing a boy and girl in uniform engaging in sexual intercourse.
The Legal Access through Women Yarning for Equality Right and Social Justice (LAWYERS) is among the many advocacy and campaign groups that have condemned both the act of filming and sharing of the videos of a minor.
LAWYERS in a press statement dated 13th April urged people to immediately stop sharing and downloading the video, saying it’s a crime and people could be charged with possession, transmission and distribution of child pornography.
“The information received so far indicates that the child involved is a 15-year old at the time the act was perpetrated and unaware she was being recorded. It is therefore important to note that a child cannot consent to any form of sexually activity/conduct and what the video depicts amount to sexual penetration of a minor child – a criminal offence punishable under the sexual offences amendment Act (No. 8) 2019, with minimum imprisonment of 5 years, or 10 years or 15 years imprisonment (depending on the age of the perpetrator) and a maximum imprisonment of life,” the release states.
Earlier this year, Defense for Children International, an advocacy organization in Sierra Leone in partnership with the Internet Watch Foundation launched a child sexual pornography protection portal to track and intercept child sexual videos once posted. The organizations said the portal was also meant to allow the public to report sexual videos when seen on the internet.
Abdul Manaff Kemokai, Executive Director of Defense for Children International, told Politico on Tuesday that the recent pornographic video is still online whiles they try to put certain mechanisms in place in order to tackle the links and send to the Internet Watch Foundation in the UK for onwards retrieval.
“There are things we need to do first in order to get the video retrieved by our partners in the UK, but because the incident occurred during holidays, we were not able to do the needy, which is what we are now working to achieve as soon as possible,” Kemokai said, adding: “once the links are identified, it will be withdrawn from all online sites on which it was posted.”
Kemokai condemned the video, saying shooting it was wrong and criminal. He called on the Police to treat the issue with utmost importance.
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