Insights from PIER24 Conference: Addressing Child Sexual Abuse Online

Over the last few days, we have been present at the PIER24 conference in the UK. PIER brings together experts and leading organisations that are driving progress in the CSA domain. The conference is a flagship event in the calendar, attracting leading figures from across the globe to share updates on their research and the results of initiatives and interventions dedicated to reducing online harms for children.

The statistics shared at the event by these incredible organisations working to make the internet and digital world safer for our children and the future kids of this world are sometimes so staggeringly high they almost desensitise us to the significance and real-life consequences of the harm caused.

A standout aspect of the event is the real impact on individuals and their families as a consequence of child sexual abuse. This includes the victims and survivors of abuse but also the family members and relatives from all sides. Moreover, we must consider the people intertwined in the process and procedures of dealing with abuse, including the police officers investigating crimes, the teachers, the charitable support staff, the judiciary, researchers and all others who are impacted by the nature and severity of abuse.

Data flowing from the IWF and the Canadian Centre for the Protection of Children – two organisations that are approved to actively search and identify child sexual abuse material (CSAM) – illustrate the scale of the issues at hand. We can be encouraged by the growing identification and removal of CSAM, but simultaneously, we can be saddened by the exponential growth of the problem.

This prompts us to reflect on the WeProtect Global Alliance’s Global Threat Assessment from earlier this year which laid down various recommendations for governments and political leaders worldwide to adopt and implement with urgency to improve our position and response.

As an organisation that contributes to the domain through activities with the police and projects such as CYCLOPES, ARICA, and 2PS – we advocate and support a whole-system response – which includes prevention, investigation & detection, and support for victims and survivors of abuse. We urge those with influence to do more to shine a light on the issues at hand and to hold the technology companies worldwide that are facilitating and, in many ways, complicit in the abuse to take action.