A coordinated European strategy has been found to be the best one to fight child sexual abuse, Catherine De Bolle from Europol explains.
Cybercrime is among the most dangerous parts of the online community which has been rising since the pandemic has taken over as well as in and outside the EU. Fraudsters and criminals do not only trade with counterfeit goods but sexually abuse children online, too. The reason why children happened to be increasingly exposed to abuse is due to spending more time online during lockdowns.
“Unfortunately the ‘don’t talk to strangers’ warning from our childhood, does not work in the online world. Child abusers visit chat rooms and come disguised as children or teenagers” – says De Bolle.
Based on the analysis conducted by Europol on the number of referrals, data shows that they started rising in early March and increased by May this year. The activities on dark web sites have become even more common; for example, one website posted materials of child sexual abuse, such as images and videos of male children. Such content can be from children who are either forced to or coerced to produce them, but videos can also be captured secretly by the offenders.
Europol has been created for sharing criminal intelligence, making it one of the strongest tools to combat international crime and fight child sexual abuse by identifying the online offenders and victims by coordinating and supporting EU Member States’ investigations.
Awareness-rising campaigns are being organised to highlight the importance of children’s safety, such as the #SayNo! and #DontBeAnEasyCatch campaigns organised by AmberAlert, one of Europol’s partners. Particular attention has been paid to the Trace and Object initiative that possesses new objects for the child sexual abuse campaign.
This strategy is believed to coordinate efforts in preventing children from being sexually abused online.
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