End Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse @ Europe (EndOCSEA@Europe)

The EndOCSEA@Europe project is implemented by the Children’s Rights Division of the Council of Europe, in co-operation with the Cybercrime Office (C-PROC) in Bucharest, Romania.

Objectives

The ever increasing use of information and communication technologies whilst providing additional opportunities for children to exercise their rights also exposes them to greater risks of sexual exploitation and abuse facilitated by online technologies. Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (OCSEA) is a crime that has far reaching, long-term consequences for the victims, survivors and the wider community. Preventing and combatting this crime is a complex challenge that requires constant action by every member state of the Council of Europe.

To support member states to prevent and combat OCSEA, the Council of Europe has launched a new project “End Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse @ Europe” (EndOCSEA@Europe). This project seeks to address the contextual challenges identified at pan-European and country levels by promoting, facilitating and supporting national efforts and actions to prevent and combat OCSEA. This project will support global efforts in this area, including actions towards SDG 16.2 and SDG 5.2 as well as the implementation of relevant international and European standards, in particular the Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse (Lanzarote Convention), and 8 of the capabilities identified in the WePROTECT Model National Response.

Newsroom on EndOCSEA@Europe project

Back Results of the 4th Steering Committee Meeting of the EndOCSEA@Europe project

On 5 February 2021, the project “End Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse@Europe” (End OCSEA@Europe) held its 4th Steering Committee meeting to discuss the positive results of the project at national level, the forthcoming activities until June 2021 and potential areas for future cooperation. Steering Committee members provided information about important ongoing national reforms related to online child sexual abuse and exploitation (OCSEA). These related in particular to the preparation of Cybersecurity national strategies with special measures to tackle OCSEA, the specialisation of judges to address cases of child sexual abuse including online, steps to establish Children’s House/ Barnahus on the basis of good practices in other countries in the region and the launch of campaigns to prevent and protect children from all forms of sexual violence, including online.

The four project grantees from national civil society organisations from Ukraine, Serbia, Montenegro, and the Republic of Moldova were also invited to present the results of their impressive capacity-building and awareness-raising activities which involved approximately 10,000 children and 300 professionals and stakeholders working in the field of OCSEA, in particular from law enforcement, policy makers, and social service providers.

Members welcomed the recent and future work of the project in particular: the various trainings on OCSEA in Ukraine and Turkey in 2020, and the planned ones in 2021 including in Armenia, Azerbaijan and the Republic of Moldova; the leaflet "So, this is sexual abuse?" which was translated, disseminated and used by relevant stakeholders in the project countries; the new materials for young children (4-7 years old) and their parents “Kiko and the Manymes” which will also be made available in the 10 project languages. They also welcomed the future update of the Baseline Mapping report on member states’ responses to prevent and combat online child sexual exploitation and abuse which will provide more recent data in this area and will include recommendations to improve the fight against OCSEA in particular in times of crisis.

The Council of Europe gratefully acknowledges the financial support provided for this programme by the End Violence Fund.

The Council of Europe Convention on Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse ( Lanzarote Convention)