Strasbourg, 18/06/2015 (Agence Europe) - A joint opinion submitted to the Council of Europe (CoE) Convention on the protection of children against exploitation and sexual abuse, also known as the Convention of Lanzarote, will help to expand child protection to include online grooming, even if this is not followed up by a physical meeting.
The Committee of Parties is made up of 36 member states that signed and ratified this Convention. On Wednesday 17 June, it adopted an opinion providing them with possibility of “going further”, according to the explanation provided to EUROPE by Gianluca Esposito, the director of the Equality and Human Dignity Section at the CoE.
Article 23 of the Convention has hitherto allowed for criminal sentences if an adult intentionally proposes by way of communication information technology, a meeting with the child, where this proposal has been followed by material acts leading to such a meeting. In other words, a criminal sentence would only be applicable if there had been a physical meeting.
This is no longer the case because the opinion unanimously adopted by the Committee of Parties now allows online grooming of children for sexual exploitation through the Internet to be criminalised, even if this is not followed by a meeting. Grooming is a term used to describe contact made by an adult for deviant sexual motives with a minor on the Internet and can now therefore be covered by the Convention.
Gianluca Esposito explained that this involved “a significant improvement” in this connection. Even if this opinion is not legally binding, it responds to a genuine societal need. The 36 parties to the Convention (Morocco is expected to ratify it soon) can now include this new dimension into their respective national law without it having necessarily to involve a protocol, which can be a lengthy procedure to negotiate and ratify, explained Esposito.
In addition to the need to keep up with technological and societal developments, the decision taken this week in Strasbourg is also part of the determination to provide a basis to the harmonisation of European legislation. Esposito said that this dimension was “crucial” because “to obtain proof and undertake legal action in the Internet age, it is necessary for criminal acts to be considered as offences in all the countries concerned”. (Véronique Leblanc)