List of the 35 member states aligned with the joint statement issued by Andorra, Luxembourg, Monaco and Slovenia: Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Malta, Republic of Moldova, Montenegro, Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, The Russian Federation, San Marino, Serbia, Slovak Republic, Spain, Sweden, “The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”, Turkey and Ukraine.

On 18 November 2017, the Council of Europe celebrates the third edition of the European Day on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse.

Acts of sexual exploitation and sexual abuse of children know no boundaries. No single state in Europe is immune from this problem. Available data suggest that 1 in 5 children in Europe experience some form of sexual violence before reaching the age of 18 and it would be erroneous to assume that boys are spared from this traumatic experience.

Today, children are immersed in the digital environment. This exciting environment offers a wealth of opportunities but is also not without danger.

New forms of sexual exploitation and abuse are emerging through information and communication technologies (ICTs), where there is anonymity for those who have the intention of planning and perpetrating crimes that are increasingly hard to detect or prevent. Facilitation of sexual violence through ICTs therefore presents new challenges to law enforcement officers, prosecutors and judges. The increasing use of ICTs by children from a very young age is also a worrying trend as children often lack awareness of the potential dangers, which can range from the exposure to, or the release of sexualised web content to the first steps to physical abuse through sex-chatting or grooming. Some children do not even understand that they are victims of sexual abuse which prolongs suffering and trauma, and leads to a detrimental psychological and developmental impact for their future.

It is therefore essential to ensure that children's rights are protected in the digital world.

In this respect, we commend the recent signing of a cooperation agreement between the Council of Europe and technology companies, which should strengthen our common work to protect children from sexual exploitation and abuse facilitated by ITCs. In this vein, we encourage the Lanzarote Committee and the Cybercrime Convention Committee to further explore possible synergies.

We also applaud the work of the Lanzarote Committee, in particular:

• the adoption of an Interpretative Opinion on the applicability of the Lanzarote Convention to sexual offences against children facilitated through the use of ICTs
• its Opinion on Article 23 of the Lanzarote Convention (Solicitation of children for sexual purposes through ICTs – Grooming)
• the Declaration on web addresses advertising or prompting child sexual abuse material or images or any other offences established in accordance with the Lanzarote convention

We note with appreciation that the second monitoring round, launched in June 2017 by the Lanzarote Committee, is dedicated to ''The protection of children against sexual exploitation and sexual abuse facilitated by information and communication technologies (ICTs)'' and we encourage all States parties to participate actively in this process.

Moreover, we welcome the work of the Ad-Hoc Committee on the Rights of the Child (CAHENF) on the draft guidelines to respect, protect and fulfil children's rights in the digital environment.

To this end, in order to promote a coherent use of terminology related to the protection of children from sexual exploitation and sexual abuse, we draw attention to the Terminology Guidelines for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse, adopted by an international and cross-institutional Interagency Working Group in Luxembourg on 28 January 2016 (including, interalia, the Council of Europe Secretariat).

It is our responsibility, as States, to ensure that children are protected from sexual exploitation and abuse in all circumstances. Ratification of the Lanzarote Convention, marked out as being the most ambitious and comprehensive legal instrument to date in the field, is the first step towards achieving a safer and healthier environment for children. We call upon all States who are not yet Party to the Convention to accede to it. However, our work does not stop there. We must continue undertaking a comprehensive approach to the issue, by holding open discussions on the protection of children and raising public awareness of the crimes committed against them.

We commit to working together in the future, to ensure that the perpetrators of these crimes are promptly detected and properly persecuted, while at the same time implementing preventive and protective measures, as well as offering assistance to the victims and their families.