NewsOne child protected, immediate result of CEPOL’s training course on Child Sexual Exploitation
One victim of Child Sexual Exploitation has been identified this week and removed from harm as a result of a training course organised by CEPOL earlier this month together with Europol and INTERPOL.
During this training activity, a total of 29 EU law enforcement officials engaged in the identification of victims of online child sexual exploitation and abuse enhanced their skills, while creating meaningful connections with their peers and trainers from different countries. The course also included hands-on practical training. During the proactive investigation session on Darknet, the participants located Child Abuse Material (CAM) producers in their own jurisdictions. As a result of the knowledge gained by participants during this training activity, one victim was safeguarded earlier this week in one EU Member State.
According to the European Commission’s findings
‘the exponential development of the digital world has made child sexual exploitation and abuse a truly global crime, and has unfortunately contributed to the creation of a global market for child sexual abuse material, shared online across borders’. It was therefore important to ensure during the activity, that law enforcement officials were trained to coordinate their work and operate at an international level, as this phenomenon knows no borders, as per the motto used by experts and practitioners working in this area: 'It takes a network to defeat the network'.
Experts from the Netherlands, Norway, Australia, INTERPOL and Europol shared their knowledge and experiences during the training sessions which triggered lively and challenging discussions.
Small steps can have a big impact
Elena, an expert trainer from the Netherlands answered our questions and explained why she believes this type of training activities will make a difference in the global fight against Child Sexual Exploitation:
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Read the full interview with Elena here.
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Background information
The fight against child sexual abuse is a priority for the EU. The EU strategy for the period 2020-2025 sets out a comprehensive response to the growing threat of child sexual abuse both offline and online, by improving prevention, investigation, and assistance to victims. Child Sexual Exploitation is identified as one of the priorities of the European Multidisciplinary Platform Against Criminal Threats (EMPACT) 2022-2025, with the aim ‘to combat child abuse online and offline, including the production and dissemination of child abuse material as well as online child sexual exploitation’.
The CEPOL EU Strategic Training Needs Assessment (EU-STNA) 2022-2025 underlines that ‘online child sexual exploitation has been on the rise over the past few years and the COVID-19 outbreak led to a considerable increase in criminal activity due to children’s increased use of the internet, often without parental supervision’ while ‘in reality, the capacity of law enforcement remains low; there is a considerable lack of sufficiently trained investigators’.
According to the findings of the EU-STNA, ‘the highest priority in terms of training is related to victim identification and the detection of child sexual abuse and exploitation material’. The report highlights the need of strengthening cooperation at the international level, as ‘officials are not always aware of the international nature of the crime area and thus limit their focus to national investigation’. The EU-STNA also notes that ‘given that child sexual abuse involves harassment, systematic abuse, and verbal, psychological and physical violence towards children, it can be psychologically challenging for law enforcement officials. Investigators need regular mental health and psychological support while in this job’.
CEPOL stands ready to further strengthen law enforcement cooperation through training.
