The Council of Europe’s Children’s Rights Division has published the external evaluation of its project End Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse@Europe (EndOCSEA@Europe), highlighting concrete achievements in strengthening national and regional responses to online child sexual exploitation and abuse (OCSEA).
The evaluation was carried out by CEval GmbH, supervised by the Directorate of Internal Oversight and funded by Safe Online. It assessed both phases of the project (2018–2021, 2023-2025), which supported ten countries and focused on legislative reform, capacity-building, and awareness-raising to protect children online.
The evaluation shows that the project effectively improved legal frameworks, enhanced coordination among governments, civil society, and professionals, and empowered children, parents, and frontline staff to prevent and respond to abuse. Legal support, training and awareness initiatives reached hundreds of stakeholders across Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova, Montenegro and Ukraine, significantly improving knowledge, skills, and confidence to address OCSEA.
“The most useful thing I learned was that no matter what happens, I must not stay silent! I must speak up and report cases of abuse, whether in society or if I am the victim” said an adolescent from the Republic of Moldova interviewed during the evaluation process.
The report highlights the project’s contribution to tangible impacts, including the ratification of the Lanzarote Convention, setting up child-friendly interview rooms, national hotlines, and new legal provisions addressing grooming and online abuse. Innovative approaches, such as the training-of-trainers model, hybrid sessions, and local NGO-led awareness campaigns, ensured efficiency, adaptability, and sustainability.
The evaluation offers actionable recommendations to build on these successes and to cover gaps and remaining challenges, including integrating training in national institutions’ curricula, stepping-up cross-border cooperation, and supporting community-based prevention efforts.
The evaluation report and relevant communication leaflets are now available:
The Council of Europe gratefully acknowledges the financial support provided for this project by Safe Online.
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