Europol annual experts seminar on combating child sexual exploitation

From 25 to 27 November, the European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) at Europol hosted the annual experts seminar on combating child sexual exploitation. The seminar was attended by about 100 representatives from 32 countries that came from law enforcement authorities, the European Commission, the private sector, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and academia.

The first day was a closed session for law enforcement dedicated to discussing operations and projects against child sexual exploitation. Specialists from the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States (FBI, ICE), the Netherlands, Italy and Colombia presented their operations and new initiatives to tackle this threat.

The second day was an open session for hotlines, NGOs, the private sector and academia. The specialist from Slovenia opened the session with a presentation on the proper use of terminology related to child sexual exploitation in public disclosure. Afterwards, the European Commission, INHOPE, the Lucy Faithfull Foundation, Missing Children Europe, the Internet Watch Foundation, ECTAT Netherlands, Facebook, Moviestarplanet and University College Cork presented their activities and prevention programmes, opening a fruitful debate with the law enforcement representatives aiming at aligning efforts and mechanisms of cooperation to protect children.

The theme of the third day was 'Behaviour Analysis'. Mentor Forensics, the University of Amsterdam, together with representatives from the Dutch and the Irish Police, explored, among other topics, the behaviour of child sex offenders.