The case of the principal of the 138th school in Sofia, Alexander Evtimov, who installed hidden cameras in the toilets of the educational institution, continues to cause sharp reactions. Despite the flash drives with recordings found in his home, the court released Evtimov on bail of 5,000 leva on the grounds that at the moment there is no evidence of creating pornographic content. However, the prosecutor's office announced that it will protest the decision.
In the studio of “Wake up” on NOVA, cybersecurity expert Yavor Kolev was categorical in his assessment of the principal's actions. “100% absolutely malicious in this case“, he said, explaining that the cameras were disguised as motion sensors, making them invisible to students. According to him, the technical implementation shows a clear intention: “These cameras were taken to his premises, to the director's office, and separately from that, he also took them to his personal mobile phone via an application”.
The expert emphasized that the examination of the seized devices could take months and it is logical that within two days the investigators still had not extracted all the materials proving the sexual motive.
Yavor Kolev outlined a disturbing picture of sexual violence against children in Bulgaria, revealing that the “Cybercrime” Directorate at the Directorate for the Prevention of Sexual Offences and Crimes annually detains between 100 and 120 sexual abusers. “95% of them are men, often living alone. They purposefully seek professions such as educators, teachers and coaches in order to have easy access to children,” he explained.
The expert paid special attention to the methods by which pedophiles “fish“ their victims on the Internet. Often this happens through online games, where the abusers gain the trust of children by giving them virtual “artifacts”, weapons or clothes for their characters. The ultimate goal of these manipulators is always to take the child out of the digital into the real space in order to abuse him.
Kolev appealed to parents to be extremely careful with the content they share on social networks. “In the US, sexual abusers collect entire albums of photos of children that their parents have uploaded - of them being bathed in the bathroom or at the beach“, he shared information from colleagues at the FBI.
The expert's advice is for parents to maintain a constant dialogue with their children and to be as interested in their online lives as they are in their grades at school. Instead of complete bans, he recommends joint creation of social media profiles and constant parental supervision.