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The National Police Agency is urging parents to be more vigilant about the use of smartphones by their children in an effort to stem the increase in sex-related crimes targeting minors.
Police are also requesting that mobile phone operators and sales outlets carefully explain to customers about the use of filtering systems to prevent minors from becoming victims of sex crimes, TBS reported Friday.
According to the NPA, in the first six months of this year, the number of children under the age of 18 who became involved in sex crimes via their smartphones was 274, more than double the number for the same period in 2012.
The majority of incidents involved online dating sites and other potentially harmful sites and as there are no programs to officially restrict children's access to these types of sites yet, police are asking mobile phone companies to devise ways to limit children's access on their smartphones.
Police are urging parents to not only be mindful and filter smartphone use, but also to watch out for malicious apps, TBS reported.
© Japan Today
12 Comments
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wanderlust
I thought smartphones (w/ cameras) and sex crimes was the speciality of the police, they have been reported frequently on this website...
Disillusioned
So, once again we see the cops pointing the finger at the victims and the carriers instead of policing these websites and shutting down the offenders.
koiwaicoffee
Why on Earth a kid needs an iphone on first place? Just because other kids have one? I'm surprised to see so many school kids with these. And it's not like they are cheap!. Do they really need total access to all the internet?
ham21
Parents have the obligation to teach their children moral values. This is what will protect the inexperienced ones from being used. There is no way a parent can be with their children 24-7 and sooner or later these young ones will be exposed to the degradation of this world in some form or another. As was pointed out, the police need to take the opportunists down where ever they can, be ultimately, it's the youths that have to take their stand.
Disillusioned
One could only hope they also do something about the morons using their phones while walking around, riding bicycles and driving.
smithinjapan
Disillusioned: "So, once again we see the cops pointing the finger at the victims and the carriers instead of policing these websites and shutting down the offenders."
EXACTLY what I was going to say. They make it sound like kiddy-porn and enjou-kousai didn't exist here until smart-phones came out. Are they not going to give the same warnings for old-school phones? Most of these sex crimes involve girls who VOLUNTARILY had sex with men for money, and that's not going to stop one bit until they crack down on the sites and not the phones. The girls will always find a way, and the Johns will, too.
proxy
Sounds like good advise to me. Children with lousy parents need a little direction too.
Itabashiku
How about making kiddie porn illegal in Japan? How about banning comics with illustrations of under age sex? How about making real laws with real punishments for any activity involving children and sex in Japan?
Wow, can you imagine the chaos that would create here?!?!?!
lostrune2
Guess time to legalize it, har!
Oxycodin
Its a good idea to strictly enforce such rules to prevent children from being a victim of a perverted pedophilia perpetrator when there are too many of them here. But I have a feeling that this will not make much of a difference as long as AKIHABARA(Home Base of Child Sex Offenders) and AKB8 is around teaching the world that its okay for old men to seek underage girls. What they need to be doing is raiding the nights at town patrolling rather then randomly standing around a corner of a street stopping you to check if your mama chari is stolen. There are more important things to be doing than worrying about a stolen bicycle. Go out there and bring justice!
jojotoday
Or how about parents just not buy smartphones for their kids...
RedactedbyFemiKnotseez
I wonder if when the telephone first became widely used the police immediately jumped up and down for more police powers and restrictions on its use?
And as if a smartphone is a whole new ballgame from other cell phones and desktop PCs with internet access.
Reports like these sound like a bunch Luddites terrified of each new introduction of technology.
How many of these 274 cases ended with a kidnapping, murder or serious bodily harm anyway? Do we need cops policing morality and screaming for expanded powers?