"Cambodia feared lagging behind predators in cybersex trafficking crackdown", 11 September 2019

U.S. and Australian crime fighters are preparing Cambodia for a spike in online child sex abuse cases but local officials fear that predators are a step ahead of police due to narrow laws.

The spread of cheap, high-speed internet and the rise in mobile phone ownership is fuelling cybersex trafficking across Southeast Asia - a form of modern-day slavery where children are abused and raped over livestreams for paying clients worldwide…

Yet undercover investigations in sexual abuse cases are not permitted under Cambodian law, hindering the authorities’ ability to tackle the trend, said Khuon Sokpiseth, deputy director of the interior ministry’s cybercrime department.

… “Countering the online sexual exploitation of children is a priority ... for Cambodia,” said a spokesman for the AFP, which ran a workshop with local law enforcement agencies...

“Of particular concern is the rise in instances and rates of child exploitation overseas with Australians involved.”

The United States, Britain and Australia are the main consumers of child sex abuse streamed over webcam, he added…

In Cambodia, charity Action Pour Le Enfants (APLE), which works with local police and the FBI, is also calling for a new cybercrime law to be adopted to prevent the crime from growing.

… Yet the head of APLE, Samleang Seila, said child trafficking had moved off the streets and into “underground environments” in recent years, and that there were now thousands of reports of illicit imagery of children being shared online each month…

More than 260,000 of Cambodia’s 16 million people are estimated to be trapped in slavery, according to the Global Slavery Index by the Australia-based Walk Free Foundation.