Many child porn victims in Japan tricked or coerced into sending nude selfies: police
- Police investigated a record number of child pornography cases in 2018, with the number surpassing 3,000 for the first time
- Many of the victims were coerced or tricked into sending nude selfies
The number surpassed 3,000 for the first time and involved 2,315 alleged perpetrators, also an all-time high, up 35.9 per cent from the previous year and the fifth consecutive yearly increase, according to the report released by the National Police Agency.
Many of the victims were coerced or tricked into sending nude selfies, the agency said. Cases in which a person possessed images of naked children surged five-fold to 951, while the production of child pornography by taking photos accounted for nearly half of the total at 1,417 cases, marginally higher than the year before.
The distribution of illegal photos by paedophiles and others stood at 729 cases, down 8.6 per cent.
Nearly 80 per cent of victims were junior high school or high school students. Among them, 1,152 girls and 124 boys were identified through methods including image analysis.
