Man gets 3 years in jail for exploiting children for immoral acts on social media

Mohammed Yaseen, Staff Reporter

Dubai Appellate Court upheld a verdict issued by the Court of First Instance jailing a GCC national for three years and confiscating his phone and tablet after he was charged with possessing and publishing indecent material over the Internet and exploiting children in immoral acts after facilitating access to indecent material through electronic games.

Details of the case date back to June 2023, when Dubai Police monitored an electronic account on a communication platform whose owner was luring children with immoral pictures after monitoring them on an electronic gaming platform.

A policeman testified in interrogations that, while performing an electronic check on social networking sites, he monitored an account on Instagram, the owner of which was communicating with children and asking them to go out with him in return for money.

He added that after monitoring the account’s device, it was found that it was linked to a local phone number and an email inside the UAE belonging to a GCC national, who was summoned, searched, and his phone was seized.

After taking legal measures, a Dubai Police team raided the suspect’s residence, where they found devices which were sent to the forensic laboratory, where it revealed that they contained obscene video materials with which the suspect used to seduce children.

The suspect confessed during interrogations that he used to lure children and seduce them by monitoring them through electronic gaming programmes and ask them to send him their personal pictures in an immoral poses after luring them with money.

He added that he used to exchange immoral pictures and video clips with the victims in which he appeared in an indecent way.

After examining the phone and tablet, indecent pictures of children, copies of conversations with others, and indecent video clips of children were found.