Growing INHOPE’s reach and our network is essential to ensuring the removal of more OCSEA (Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse) material wherever in the world it is reported and wherever in the world it is hosted.

The impact of our global network is only possible through the cooperation of member hotlines in tackling the international nature of removing illegal material online. Having grown to 52 hotlines this year, the INHOPE Network Expansion team anticipates receiving applications for INHOPE membership from NGOs Magnolia (Ukraine), OCHRÁŇ MA (Slovakia), ACSAI (Nigeria), CASAF (Cameroon) & Africa Watch Trust (Zimbabwe) before the end of 2023. Thanks to support from EVAC, META and Google, we are continuing engagement with additional prospective hotline organisations across Latin America, Asia-Pacific and Africa.

Local & Global

The value of a national presence is the ability to apply a localised approach to raising awareness of the need to report and ultimately remove illegal material from the internet. Cultural nuances need to be delicately managed and we work closely with each prospective organisation to adapt to specific needs. To ensure that we are reaching more than just the English-speaking world we have been holding our quarterly introductory seminars on ‘How to create a hotline’ in Spanish, which has enabled us to communicate with more countries in Latin America, including Guatemala, Bolivia, and El Salvador. All of our documents are also now available in Spanish.

How to expand into new regions?

We build momentum nationally with the identified prospective hotline by having on-the-ground roundtables and bilaterals which ensure all stakeholders are at the table from the outset. This permits them to understand the importance of the setting-up of a hotline as part of the ecosystem that must be present to respond to OCSEA. This model is necessary and ultimately successful because if the country in question doesn’t yet have the different necessary elements of that ecosystem in place, we can assist them by introducing tools such as the WeProtect Global Alliance Model National Response.

Building national support can be a challenge, especially when we are entering a region with which INHOPE has had little contact in the past. Currently, we are exploring the feasibility of delivering a summit in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region in March 2024. We are exploring how we can continue to add other languages that are widely spoken across the world, especially in MENA, where there is no hotline presence today.

The MENA region remains untapped by INHOPE for the removal online child sexual abuse material (CSAM). The idea behind the regional event would be to grow user activity and engagement through a community first approach, to strengthen business sustainability and corporate social responsibility, to promote strategic communication and raise awareness of online child sexual abuse material across the region. By providing local and international hosting companies with other stakeholder connections they can help their countries and the region take ownership of the issue. This event is an opportunity for organisations learn more about how the INHOPE network is a valuable asset in creating and operating a successful national response to the victims and survivors of online CSAM.

Future plans

Our strategic growth is not limited to one region of expansion. Together with INHOPE’s hotline in Australia, our network expansion team is also organising a regional meeting in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. With the support and collaboration from our partners at META, Google, UNICEF, INTERPOL, WPGA among others we are able to reach more countries in a number of regions: APAC, MENA and Latin America.

Why does regional expansion matter?

Every hotline within the INHOPE network raises the bar in their own country concerning all forms of CSEA because by having a hotline all stakeholders must be engaged. A hotline must receive written support from industry, government departments, the civil society sector and the police to become an INHOPE hotline. For example, a hotline must create a Memorandum of Understanding or MoU with its national Law Enforcement Agency (LEA). An MoU is an official agreement between a prospective hotline and the national LEA which permits a hotline to analyse the reports of online child sexual abuse material reported by the public, for removal. Hotlines that wish to explore establishing an INHOPE hotline, receive immediate support in building essential relationships with national and international law enforcement agencies.

Interested in finding out more about your country's potential? Contact our network expansion team via info@inhope.org