For the last two decades, child sexual abuse material (CSAM) produced offline by abusers has been shared online andwhile these offences persist in large numbers, more recently law enforcement and civil society first responders havereported an increasing trend for ‘live streamed’ sexual abuse and for the sharing of such videos and images.

Given the complexity of this phenomenon countries need to have a multidisciplinary approach by joining forces of thedifferent stakeholders in order to have a successful prevention, awareness raising and criminal justice response. In order to support the criminal justice authorities in the fight against OCSEA, a regional workshopwas organised jointly by the UNODC Regional Office for Southeast Asia and the Pacific and the Council of Europe.

Around 100 delegates attended the online event, connecting from Brunei, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Maldives, thePhilippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, as well as on behalf of UNICEF, UNODC, South East Asia Justice (SEAJust) Network and the Council of Europe.

Highlighting the importance of criminal justice authorities to be equiped with both legislative and technical tools so asto enhance the investigative powers and collection of electronic evidence in providing adequate response,international standards were presented by both Council of Europe and UNICEF representatives, complemented withinformation on the capacity building programmes offered worldwide by the Cybercrime Programme Office of theCouncil of Europe (C-PROC) and the UNODC.

Case studies from the Philippines and Sri Lanka were shared, as well as best practices and updates from a number ofcountries in the region, that disclosed main challenges faced currently, as well as steps taken to improve the protectionof children and apprehension of offenders in cases involving OCSEA.

Through the Octopus Project, the Council of Europe will continue to provide support to countries in the Asia region forlegislative alignment with international best practices based on the Budapest Convention on cybercrime and theLanzarote Convention as global standards, as well as for capacity building programmes. The Council of Europegratefully acknowledges voluntary contributions of the donors to this project.

 Octopus Project webpage

 UNODC Regional Office for South East Asia and the Pacific website

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

 Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime (Budapest Convention)