crime priority: child sexual exploitation online
Online child sexual exploitation epitomises the worst aspects of cybercrime. The hands-on abuse of vulnerable minors occurs very much in the real world, but it is captured, shared, distributed, encouraged and even directed over the internet. Unlike other areas of cybercrime, the primary focus for investigators working in this area is shifting from being offender centric to victim centric.
KEY FINDINGS
- Coercion and sexual extortion are increasingly being used to victimise children. Offenders use these methods to obtain further child abuse material, for financial gain, or to get physical access to the victims.
- While peer-to-peer (P2P) networks continue to remain a key platform for the sharing and distribution of child sexual exploitation material (CSEM), reports indicate that every-day communication and social media applications are increasingly being used for the same purpose.
- Online offender communities operating from within the Darknet remain a primary concern, providing an environment for offenders to legitimise their behaviour, and to share both access to CSEM and operations security (OPSEC) knowledge. The largest and most prolific offenders and communities identified by law enforcement had a significant presence on the Darknet.
KEY RECOMMENDATIONS
- EU Member States should ensure that any investigative tool or measure used for combating serious and/or organised crime is also made available and used to full effect in investigating online child sexual exploitation (CSE). It should also be considered that prosecutions under organised crime statutes should be pursued for dealing with the key individuals creating, supporting and driving communities related to CSE crimes.
- Crime recording and analysis systems in the Member States should be upgraded to better reflect and capture the different types of online sexual crime being reported by or associated with child victims. This is particularly true for online sexual coercion and extortion but applies to other types of CSEM-related crime also.
- Member States should strongly consider cooperating through Europol with agencies and bodies including the European Financial Coalition and other regional Financial Coalitions to tackle the abuse of legitimate payment systems enabling child sexual abuse and exploitation.
- Education is the best defence that can be provided to minors. It is therefore essential that the momentum for joint, high-quality and multi-lingual EU-wide prevention and awareness activity is maintained so that strong and effective messages can reach those that need them. Integration in education, and the education of parents is also essential. In addition, every opportunity must be made available to enable victims to report abuse.
