Published: Wed 13 Sep 2023
As new data shows EU servers are being targeted by criminals to host this imagery, EU legislators must pass vital new legislation to get a grip on the worsening situation and prevent the abuse of EU servers by criminals profiting off child sexual abuse imagery, writes Susie Hargreaves.
Susie Hargreaves OBE is the Chief Executive of the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), Europe’s biggest hotline dedicated to the detection and prevention of child sexual abuse imagery on the internet.
As legislators prepare the ground for vital new laws to stem the spread of child sexual abuse imagery online, they need to face the fact the situation in the EU is getting worse, not better. Supporting the upcoming legislation is vital.
When we think of criminal gangs smuggling illegal material across country borders, we think of drugs, of illegal weapons being ferried back and forth. We think of blacked out cars and gangsters, we think of ruined lives and corruption.
But the trade in toxic child sexual abuse imagery is going on right on our doorstep.
Read the full article at Euractiv.
The girl sent a photo to a boy in her class before the image and her phone number were added to all-male online chat groups - she later started disappearing before being abused by "unknown men".
