A European petition launched against sexual abuse of children on the Internet

The internet is not a safe place for children, is the premise of victims’ groups and child protection organizations across Europe. The latter officially launched their petition on Wednesday February 22 at an event in the presence of the Minister Delegate in charge of Overseas Territories, Mr. Jean-François Carenco. The former President of the Republic, Mr. François Hollande is also a signatory of this petition.

Current protection against sexual abuse is insufficient

The distribution of child sexual abuse material (Child Sexual Abuse Material, or CSAM) on the Internet is growing exponentially: from 1 million reports in 2010 to 32 million in 2022, comprising 88 million images and videos. Reports indicate that some companies operating and having servers in the EU have now become the largest hosts of CSAMs globally (growing from hosting more than half of all CSAMs detected in 2016 to 85% in 2020 ). This shows that Europe has become a hub for the trafficking of images of sexualized violence on the Internet. “We must act now,” said Nina Vaaranen-Valkonen (Finland), executive director of Suojellaan Lapsia, Protect Children, one of Europe’s leading child protection organizations. For survivors, just knowing that a video or photo of their abuse is circulating on the internet is devastating. There is an urgent need for regulation and new legislation: “Current legislation, which is based on voluntary efforts, is no longer enough. It is time to protect children’s rights and together demand binding rules in order to make the internet safer for children.”

A petition to ask for more protection and support for victims

In a press release, all stakeholders call on “the European Union to take a global leadership position and vote in favor of the current EU proposal on child abuse content, so that we can protect all children and adolescents, and to achieve justice for survivors.”

If the organizations support the regulation aimed at preventing and combating sexual violence against children, proposed by the Commission on May 11, 2022, they call for its rapid adoption of this text. Especially :

• the adoption of the proposed obligations for online service providers to prevent, detect, report and remove child abuse content online, in order to end the continued re-victimization of survivors and enable the rapid rescue of victims currently suffering abuse or who will be exposed to it in an imminent manner;
• the establishment of the proposed European Center to Prevent and Combat Child Sexual Abuse, empowered to facilitate effective assistance and support to survivors across the Union.

Victim groups and child protection organizations are calling on the EU to include in the future revision of the 2011 Child Sexual Abuse Directive the following obligations for Member States:

• ensure that effective mechanisms for reporting child sexual abuse are in place and that effective investigative tools are deployed to identify victims and rescue them from ongoing abuse as soon as possible;
• ensure that the criminal statute of limitations in child abuse cases is extended as much as possible;
• formally recognize survivors who have suffered any form of abuse or; of sexual exploitation when they were children:
• adhere to international best standards and practices in acknowledging, reassessing and apologizing for past abuses and forms of reparation

Petition link: https://justice-initiative.eu/fr/petition/