The European Financial Coalition
Commercial child abuse websites
Adults with a sexual interest in children are increasingly using the internet and emerging technology to share and view child sexual abuse images. One of the ways in which these images are available is via commercial websites, where customers pay a subscription to access them. The images these websites make available show real children being sexually abused or sexually exploited, with individuals paying to either purchase or view these images.
The European Financial Coalition
Major financial, internet and technology corporations have joined forces with international policing agencies, the European Commission and specialist child protection NGO’s to bring to a halt the activities of those who seek to make money from the distribution of child sexual abuse images.
Led by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre – the UK’s dedicated policing organisation for protecting children from sexual exploitation – and funded by the European Commission, the European Financial Coalition (EFC) brings together organisations from across all key sectors to track, disrupt and look to ultimately confiscate commercial gain made by those who deal in the distribution of some of the worst material imaginable.
Measuring any kind of illegal online activity is a major challenge, whether that is the volume and severity of attacks against networks and computers or the crimes facilitated through networks and computers. Measuring the commercial online distribution of child sexual abuse images is no exception. The EFC is working with partners to build a reliable vision of the problem, but the simple truth is that even one website that is in existence selling child sexual abuse images is one website too many.
A 14-month pilot project for the European Financial Coalition officially began on the 1st July 2009 and at this time clear objectives were set, including:
- Gather and analyse intelligence on commercial websites selling child abuse images, individuals and/or groups behind commercial websites, payment systems utilised and purchasers of such material;
- Identify and protect victims of child abuse;
- Educate and disseminate best practice, suggest legal changes, raise awareness and implement a number of identified strategies;
- Reduce/ eradicate supply by means of enforcement, disruption and confiscation and influence demand by means of disruption and enforcement; and
- Co-ordinate and co-operate with law enforcement, industry and NGO’s across Europe
Since the project launch, major progress has been made with the coalition:
- A fully functioning Steering Group is in place;
- There are five established Working Groups;
- Two EFC plenary sessions have taken place, where workshops were held on key deliverables and disruption strategies;
- There has been an increasing partnership with more organisations becoming involved; and
- A Secretariat is in place, project managing the EFC
EU legislation
Some members of the EFC are currently looking at a Proposal for a Council Framework Decision on combating the sexual abuse, sexual exploitation of children and child pornography, replacing Framework Decision 2004/68/JHA. This is a new piece of legislation that is aiming to build a more coherent and effective framework for combating child sexual abuse crimes across the borders of Europe.
There are a number of points within the legislation that are relevant to the work of the EFC and as such, the key EFC members are liaising with MEP’s as to the direction of the legislation and any possible amendments. Contact with the European Commission will be made as soon as all comments are received back from the working groups.
Final conference
To mark the end of the pilot EFC project, a conference will be held on 15-16 September 2010, at the Concert Noble in Brussels. The conference aims to look back at what the EFC has achieved, but will also look forward and how the EFC can grow and expand. More information will be released shortly, but if you would like to attend, please contact us.