How these EU decisions help in the fight against child sexual abuse and exploitation

Child sexual abuse is a major problem that the EU is working hard to get rid of. For example, in 2011, the European Union made a new legislation obliging EU countries to boost criminal penalties and criminalize the possession and acquisition of online child sexual abuse material that is shared and available on the internet and else.

This law protects children that are abused or tortured physically and /or sexually. It obliges EU countries to increase criminal penalties and to punish the publishers, who control and maintain the sexual data and type of content on numerous websites on the internet, as well as to remove or warn websites that contain child pornography.

EPP Group MEP Anna Maria Corazza Bildt is calling for more action, including working with the digital community to tackle new forms of crime like revenge pornography on the internet. It is about strengthening the cooperation among police, community and other institutions, in order to protect children and prevent sexual abuse and exploitation, minimize the risk of criminal, and profitability of that type of business, although there are many websites that provide such data. Enormous help is provided by local civil societies for saving the vulnerable victims.

The content, comprising materials inappropriate for children at that age, can be found on the Internet but it must be managed together with the designed platform, digital community, Europol, work carefully in order to prevent worse consequences to all affected young population psychologically, mentally and even physically.

The European Parliament’s Civil Liberties Committee is working on a report on the EU’s 2011 Directive to determine what more can be done. The final goal is the initiators of the sexual exploitation to be brought to justice and punished properly.