Interpol

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INTERPOL is an inter-governmental organisation with 195 member countries. HDF has partnered with INTERPOL since 2015.

Despite raising global awareness, online child sexual exploitation and abuse remains a vast and ever-growing phenomenon in our increasingly connected societies. In December 2021, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC)’s CyberTipline exceeded 100 million reports of suspected child sexual exploitation. The increased use of mobile devices, social media and communication applications increases the access perpetrators have to potential victims. Additionally, the growth of the Darknet, virtual assets and encrypted messaging applications enable offenders to exchange illegal media and conceal their identity while committing such crimes. Children are groomed into exploitative situations online, abused online remotely or by proxy, and their abuse is documented and shared online. Such documentation of child sexual exploitation, in the form of images, videos or written accounts, is widely distributed and available online, constantly re-traumatising children. Offenders pursue this crime for sexual gratification and profit, with the overarching aim of drawing new offenders into this web of abuse.

Online child sexual exploitation and abuse remains a vast and ever-growing phenomenon in our increasingly connected societies. INTERPOL is fighting back.

INTERPOL’s FACE project, funded by Human Dignity Foundation, works to identify victims and disrupt offenders online. It does this by utilising the reach and scale of the ICSE (International Child Sexual Exploitation) Database, training new users in member law enforcement agencies around the world, and building the capacity of additional units to engage in victim identification. Furthermore, the team works to disrupt offenders by monitoring online exchanges, harvesting new child abuse material to identify victims and perpetrators, developing datasets and analysis capabilities to target offenders, as well as initiating intelligence-led international operations and operational support to member states.