Presented on Friday 8 April in Rome at the Conference on the Council of Europe’s new strategy on children’s rights, the latest report of the committee in charge of monitoring the Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse (Lanzarote Convention) warns of the increase in self-generated sexual images and videos by children on the Internet.
Already perceived as alarming in 2017, this increase has been confirmed with the lockdowns imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic and is quantified at 77% for the 2019-2020 period, according to figures from the Internet Watch Foundation, which confirms the importance of the report, it was stressed.
To address this, the Lanzarote Committee is calling for legislative changes, including the creation of a specific offence covering child sexual extortion, with girls aged 11 to 13 most affected, according to the report, which contains the testimony of 200 children from 10 of the 43 European countries analysed. This requires the provision of sufficient resources and state-of-the-art technology for investigators as well as cooperation between States party to the Convention in international investigations.
Another key area is the implementation of educational measures for children as a priority to help them understand and avoid the risks associated with these sexual images and videos.
“One serious conversation by a child with a parent or teacher can make a difference”, Susie Hargreaves, Executive Director of the Internet Watch Foundation, told the conference, referring to awareness campaigns in the UK. (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)