Following on from our article on point 7 of EU strategy for a more effective fight against child sexual abuse:

8. Improve protection of children globally through multi-stakeholder cooperation

Child sexual abuse is a global reality across all countries and social groups and it happens both offline and online. It is estimated that at any given moment across the world there are more than 750 000 predators online exchanging child sexual abuse material, streaming live abuse of children, extorting children to produce sexual material or grooming children for future sexual abuse.

Online Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) is a global issue and thus needs a global response. INHOPE welcomes the European Commission’s strategy which has identified as one of its key initiatives, the need to improve protection of children globally through multi-stakeholder cooperation. Specifically, the WePROTECT Global Alliance has been cited as an example of high-level multi-stakeholder international cooperation.

INHOPE has been a strong supporter of WePROTECT since its inception and is one of a small number of civil society organisations represented on the WePROTECT Board.

WePROTECT offers the opportunity to influence policy around CSAM at an international level which will benefit Hotlines and ultimately make them more effective in their objective of combatting online CSAM. One of their largest achievements to date has been the creation of Model National Response for preventing and tackling Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (CSEA).

Going forward INHOPE will continue to work directly with the WePROTECT global alliance into the future.

“We see there’s challenges ahead, but there is also a real positivity towards taking the Strategy forward. We need to get everyone singing from the same hymn sheet as everyone has a part to play.” - Speaker at the 2020 Safer Internet Forum

Source: EU strategy for a more effective fight against child sexual abuse