"This abuse continued over several years."
An Indian man has been arrested for sexually abusing an Australian girl, with it taking place over WhatsApp and Instagram.
The abuse also included intimidation.
Western Australian police announced that the unnamed suspect was charged by Indian authorities.
The girl became a victim of the man when she was 11 years old in 2020.
In 2023, detectives from child exploitation operations were alerted of an incident involving the girl.
She was the alleged victim of online grooming, sextortion and other online offences from a person she met online.
Addressing the matter, the police said: “This abuse continued over several years and caused severe trauma to the girl.”
The alleged offender was tracked by police to India and Indian authorities were contacted via Interpol.
The statement continued: “Indian authorities charged the man in relation to criminal intimidation, transmitting of material depicting children in the sexually explicit act, and sexual harassment upon a child with sexual intent.”
Research from As Equals from Plan International and CNN revealed that one in 10 girls faced online harassment daily or almost daily.
Almost 40% reported that they have faced harassment at least once a month.
This survey involved over 600 young women and girls who were aged between 13 and 24 years.
It spanned nine countries and concluded that 11% of these people experienced such online experiences daily or almost daily.
Three-quarters of respondents had exposure to such incidents online “at some point”.
Furthermore, 44% of respondents recalled perpetrators sexually abusing them.
Such behaviour included exposing the victims to unwanted sexual images or videos.
25% of respondents had also faced discrimination or hate speech.
In 2024, Susanne Legena, Chief Executive of The Plan International Australia described online violence as “prolific”.
She said: “Online violence is a universal issue and Australia is not immune.
“The calls our e-Safety commissioner has made this week are very important steps in a global effort for transparency and regulation in light of the tech giants failing to enforce any self-regulatory codes on their own.
“The bitter truth we must accept is this: online violence is serious and prolific.
“It silences the voices of girls and children and it causes real and lasting harm.
“So we must ask, what are we going to do about it?”
Australia’s eSafety commissioner, Julie Imman Grant has also issued legal notices to companies thought to hold them accountable for their actions against online violence.
This includes combatting AI-generated child abuse material, deepfakes, online grooming, and sexual extortion.
According to the notices, companies including Apple, Google and Microsoft in Australia are required to report to eSafety every six months about such measures on their platforms.
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