News Americas, WASHINGTON, D.C. Mon. Mar. 29, 2021: Is child porn a growing problem in this Caribbean Country?
President of the Trinidad and Tobago National Council of Parent Teacher Associations (NCPTA), Clarence Mendoza, says it is. In an interview with the Trinidad Express Mendoza said the production and distribution of child pornography has been going on for a long time and has infiltrated the school system.
His comments come on the heels of the recent arrest of Neil Ramdeen, a 35-year-old T&TEC employee and former Special Reserve Police, for possession of child pornography videos. Ramdeen was arrested and charged after police discovered at his home a large quantity of pornographic material involving minors.
It is the latest incident highlighting what Mendoza described as an ongoing problem in this country.
He said there have been many instances in the past of underage pupils making pornographic material which ends up online.
“In the school environment what we have seen is that the students would have made their pornography videos and that would have gone around on social media,” he was quoted as saying. “We have other schools where pupils would have gotten into those types of compromising positions with other pupils. We have also had discussions where pupils in the privacy of their homes would have made short videos for other pupils where male pupils would ask female pupils to show their bodies and expose themselves.”
Mendoza revealed that some young female students give in to peer pressure and send sexual videos and images of themselves which are then circulated online and, in some cases, even sold to adults without their knowledge.
“We are realizing it is being sold around by the pupils to adults. Since the arrival of camera phones we have seen it grow from recording pupil school fights to now pupil pornography,” he told the paper, adding that child-on-child pornography may not be taken as seriously as opposed to an adult with a child.
But he argued that it is just as serious and illegal and noted that adults are the ones viewing and purchasing the material while calling for the need for stricter penalties, not only for the adults involved, but also for teenagers who produce this content.
