Brussels, 05/12/2012 (Agence Europe) - On 5 December in Brussels, the European Commissioner for home affairs, Cecilia Malmström and the US Attorney General, Eric Holder, launched the Global Alliance against Child Sexual Abuse Online. A Commission press release explained that the initiative brings together 48 countries and aims to “unite decision-makers all around the world to better identify and assist victims and to prosecute the perpetrators.” Along with the 27 EU members and the US, some of the other members of the Alliance include Albania, Australia, Croatia, Ghana, Japan, Thailand, and Turkey. Russia is not part of the initiative.
The Commission explained that the objective of this alliance is to involve countries participating in this initiative in activities focusing on a certain number of commitments, such as stepping up efforts to identify the victims and ensure that they receive the necessary assistance and protection, as well as increasing investigations into child sexual abuse and identifying the perpetrators, raising awareness among children about the risks on the Internet and reducing the availability of child pornography.
During a press briefing on Wednesday with her US counterpart, Malmström indicated that the number of images of child pornography on the web is continually increasing and stands at 55,000 new images a year. More than 1 million images are on the web already, she explained. Eric Holder said that these threats to our children are continuing to grow and said that international cooperation was more important than ever. The US official also considers that other countries are now ready to join this initiative.
At an EU level, another directive enhancing criminal sanctions against those responsible for publishing images of child pornography and providing the authorities with greater resources for blocking or removing these web pages was adopted at the end of 2011. The directive calls for member states to remove child pornography sites from the internet and to block access to them on their respective territory if they are unable to remove them. The Global Alliance launched on Wednesday 5 December also intends to exchange practices and explore a variety of policies adopted throughout the world to combat this problem. (SP/transl.fl)