The Linguist is a languages magazine for professional linguists, translators, interpreters, language professionals, language teachers, trainers, students and academics with articles on translation, interpreting, business, government, technology
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@Linguist_CIOL APRIL/MAY The Linguist 9 FEATURES with threats to tell their parents if they don't comply. This has added to a huge increase in work in this field for language professionals. Increasingly, agencies and charities who offer support and guidance to victims and/or their families produce their leaflets and other materials in languages other than English, so there is a lot of work for us here too. These include PACE (Parents Against CSE; paceuk.info), the NSPCC (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children; www.nspcc.co.uk/parents), Safer Internet (www.saferinternet.org.uk), the telephone service Childline (www.childline.org.uk) and Childnet International (www.childnet.com). As language professionals, we also need to familiarise ourselves with the language children use when they are trying to describe what has happened to them to the various safeguarding authorities. Children rarely use the same language as adults to describe their body parts and may call their genitals 'my twinkle', 'my piddle' or, in French, zezette or zizi. Language professionals with small children are better placed to keep up-to-date with current language in this area, but there are lots of blogs specialising in vocabulary used by toddlers, children and teenagers (for example, frenchtoday.com/blog). In the context of obtaining a successful prosecution, accuracy in interpretation is vital. DISTRESSING WORK This sort of work may not appeal to all language professionals as it is often deeply distressing, given the ages of the victims and the nature of the depravity involved. You need to be able to develop a mindset that can deal with the subject matter (and the victims, if you are in a face-to-face situation with them) in an objective, calm and professional manner. This is easier said than done and I would be lying if I said that some cases haven't 'got' to me. Many cases involve long-running and painstaking investigations, so exposure for the professionals involved – including interpreters, translators and transcribers – can be prolonged and intense. In terms of formal support, counselling and guidelines on professional behaviour and coping strategies, these are still unchartered waters for us. Unlike the police and social services personnel we work with, we have no in-house counselling services to turn to. What is clear is that this growth area for language professionals is not going away any time soon. Twitter has recently released figures showing that it took down some 487,363 accounts involving CSE between January and June last year. However, this is probably only the tip of the iceberg as predators resort to more and more sophisticated techniques to avoid detection. the victim, indicated by a response such as 'yucky', gives way, until the child is responding with messages containing smiley emojis. INTERPRETING ABUSE Language professionals working in this growth area are increasingly being asked by agencies concerned with prosecuting predators and safeguarding children to transcribe, translate and interpret written and visual documents. These include transcriptions of phone and Skype calls, text messages spanning months, and references to graphic photos and videos found on social media. Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Google+, YouTube, Viber and Tango are just a few of the social media channels used by those exploiting children. A recent investigation by The Times found that paedophiles were using YouTube as a shop window for CSE. The Internet Matters research group estimates more than a quarter of children aged 6-10 in the UK post live content to global audiences, often via free YouTube accounts. Predators persuade children to strip off and/or adopt sexualised poses, taking advantage of a 2018 rule change that enables anyone with a YouTube account to livestream from a mobile phone. These videos are then shared on other fora and used to blackmail victims into carrying out more serious acts, IMAGES © SHUTTERSTOCK