A Dubai court has reduced the fine imposed on a man guilty of spreading thousands of children’s pornographic content on social media.
The man had shared over 2,600 indecent images and recordings of children online. In March last year, Dubai Police got a search warrant and found 4,507 offensive images and recordings stored on 2 smartphones and 3 laptops in his home. The police also found a hard disk with similar content in his car.
The culprit confessed to downloading the videos but denied spreading them online. He was initially fined AED 200,000 ($54,450) by the Dubai Court of Misdemeanors in November. But he appealed the decision at the Court of Appeal, which reduced his fine to AED 20,000 ($5,445).
Child pornography cases have been increasing globally. Over 45 million images and videos of such cases were reported in 2020, an increase of over 50% since 2016. Online sexual predators are exploiting the internet to distribute and sell child sexual abuse material, making it a growing concern.
