If you were ever on the fence about whether it's right to subject a young child to modelling, then the recent raid on the Nene modelling agency where a trove of child pornography was found by law enforcement will undoubtedly have made your views on this matter clear.
The worst possible thing that could have happened to a child put in a situation where they were forced to be in front of a camera with a stranger, allegedly happened, right under everyone's noses, thousands of times. Just at this one agency. The chilling question is: How many more children may have been subjected to this kind of abuse?
Just before Thailand commenced its celebrations of Chinese New Year, one of the country's biggest global distributors of child pornography was arrested at his child modelling agency in Pathum Thani.
The man who ran Nene modelling, Danudetch Saengkaew, 23, reportedly had half a million nude photos of children -- some aged as young as two years old -- stored in his computer. According to Channel News Asia, a portfolio found by police during the raid revealed Nene had worked with more than 8,400 child models and actors since 2013.
The Department of Special Investigation (DSI) said victims included Thai children as well as thousands of children from other countries. The raid was executed after a tip-off from Australian Federal Police over a year ago that alerted authorities there was a Thai national running a major child porn business.
In one of the biggest operations of its kind, Thai authorities worked with the Australian embassy, Operation Underground Railroad (OUR), Interpol, the FBI and New Zealand police to analyse the pictures they received from Australian police. After some digging, they eventually managed to trace a photo of a child back to a man, identified as Thakorn Attapthomchai, who was reportedly involved with Mr Danudetch's business and who supposedly took some of the photos.
Mr Danudetch has yet to be convicted but it is important to question the justice system's decision to commute Thakorn's prison sentence from 19 years to nine, on the grounds he confessed to his wrongdoing and pointed police towards Mr Danudetch. This doesn't excuse what happened to these children. How comfortable would society be seeing a man with his history having access to children again in nine years' time?
And while it is certainly a real achievement that people of this kind have been caught and are going to face the consequences, one has to ask, how did we even get to this point?
How is it that it took the police force of another country to tell authorities this was happening? How is it a company of this sort operated without any background or criminal checks, or licences authorising it to work with children?
On Tuesday, five days after Mr Danudetch's arrest, the DSI formally accepted for investigation the case involving Nene modelling. Officers believe that some of the children photographed were sexually abused during their time with the agency. According to DSI director-general, Korrawat Panprapakorn, "[the amount of evidence] convinced investigators the agency must have been behind the abuse of thousands of children".
One also has to question the role the parents and guardians of these children played. Where were they when these photos were taken? Apparently not in the room. This newspaper feels it is important to remind people responsible for looking after children that it is dangerous to leave a child in a room with a stranger holding a camera, especially in this day and age.
For these victims, the side-effects of the abuse they had to endure during their time with the agency could be with them for life.
Studies show survivors of child sexual abuse are known to have reduced psychological and physical well-being throughout their life; they'll suffer problems with family and intimate relationships; they'll struggle in their education, careers and faith; and they are also two to four times more likely to become victims of sexual, physical or emotional abuse again in their lifetime, according to The UK Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. Adults who were sexually abused as children are also three times more likely than others to try and commit suicide, according to a 2019 study by Psychological Medicine.
We sympathise with the parents and guardians who sent their children to Nene modelling. No parent wants to believe that this sort of thing could have happened to their child. But it does.
Although the seediness of many of Thailand's modelling agencies is generally recognised, when it comes to child modelling, there should be no negligence. Opportunists, paedophiles and pornographic content producers are rife and ready to pounce, especially in this digital age. Government, police, schools, public, parents, media -- be vigilant. And next time you think of sending your child to a modelling agency, just remember what is suspected to have happened at Nene modelling.