The President of the Catholic Bishops Conference, Most Reverend Philip Naameh has lamented the use of social media for the promotion of prostitution and other social vices which he describes as “illegal digital marketing”.
The Archbishop explained that the recent surge in the use of internet as a means of keeping up with social and professional life in the midst of the Corona Virus (COVID-19), pandemic had paved the way for increased internet prostitution among women.
“People are trying to surf the internet for educational or professional purposes but are likely to meet unfortunate incidents that would lead to sexual abuse or yielding to purported hook-ups which were not initially budgeted for by the user”, he said.
The Man of God who was addressing Catholic faithful at the opening of a Five-day Plenary Assembly by the Conference at Wa on Monday cautioned the youth to be cautious in accessing and using the internet to avoid falling victims to such negative act.
The annual plenary assembly which brought together bishops from all the catholic dioceses across the country and other reverend ministers who were in the country for missionary work was on the theme; “Fratelli Tutti (Fraternity of all humanity) and COVID-19: Pastoral opportunities and challenges in Ghana”.
“Even more worrying is the rise in sextortion and revenge porn especially targeting women and girls and unfortunately many youth, even those raised in the church are turning to these vices as a way of financing their lavish lifestyle”, he decried.
He indicated that some young women unconsciously fell victim to sextortion on the internet through alleged hook-ups that would supposedly link them to non-existent husbands normally outside their country of jurisdiction and called on the youth, particularly females to be circumspect when using the internet.
Most Rev Naameh defined sextortion as a “threat to blackmail or expose sexual images of an individual in order to get them to provide something to the blackmailer in a bid to halt the intended exposure”.
“Through the sharing of inappropriate pictures with strangers, girls are sometimes blackmailed and huge sums of money are extorted from them, those who are unable to make those financial commitments are humiliated when their nude pictures are finally exposed to the outside world and we must guard against this”, he stressed.
He added that although the need for technology in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic was necessary considering the number of restrictions, the rise in the demand for information communication technology had led to a surge in cybercrimes across the globe.
He mentioned crimes such as identity fraud, estate fraud, non-delivery of merchandise, fake online investment schemes and romance scams as well as mobile money fraud as the popular ones and called on users of the internet to take extra caution and guard against such abuses online.
The Metropolitan Archbishop of Tamale advised young ladies to live within their means and avoid finding resources from dubious sources to fund unproductive lavish lifestyles.

From Lydia Darlington Fordjour, Wa