Brussels, 21/06/2012 (Agence Europe) - Participants at the US-EU justice and home affairs ministerial meeting in Copenhagen on 21 June called on governments around the world to participate in building a Global Alliance to combat child sexual abuse online. The initiative, which is to take effect on December 2012, aims to step up cooperation between parties concerned in order to speed up the identification of victims and more effectively prosecute criminals. European Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmström took the view that one should go beyond declarations of principle and significantly improve the fight against child sexual abuse online at both national and international level.
Child sexual abuse online comes in many shapes and knows no borders. Child pornography images circulate easily across jurisdictions and perpetuate victimisation of children whose abuse is depicted and disclosed time and time again. Child pornography offenders operate increasingly in international online groups that use sophisticated technology and security protocols to frustrate the efforts by law enforcement bodies to investigate their crimes. The Global Alliance seeks to step up cross-border cooperation on four fronts to: (1) enhance efforts to identify victims in order to bring them assistance and protection as swiftly as possible; (2) reduce the availability of child pornography online and the re-victimisation of children; (3) enhance efforts to investigate cases of child sexual abuse online and to identify and prosecute offenders; and (4) increase public awareness of the risks posed by children's activities online, including the self-production of images, in order to reduce the production of new child pornography.
The Global Alliance builds upon the successful work of the EU-US working group on cyber-security and cyber-crime, where the fight against child online abuse has been identified as a key priority. The Global Alliance will set out policy targets and operational goals, but participating states will be free to choose the means of achieving those goals. Also, specific measures, in extent and content, will be decided by participant states in accordance with the specific national situation. (IL/transl.jl)