On this World Day for the Prevention and Healing from Child Sexual Exploitation, Abuse and Violence, we, a coalition of 77 organisations working on children right’s, urgently call on you to pass critical laws to protect children against sexual abuse andexploitation, online and offline.

Europe is facing a Child Sexual Abuse Crisis. Available data indicate that about 1 in 5 children in Europe have experienced some form of sexual violence. Children across all social, economic, cultural, and geographical backgrounds are affected, facing abuse in various environments- from family homes and schools, social media and gamingplatforms to institutional settings.

Online, the scale, severity, and violence of child sexual abuse are spiraling out of control, with over half of young people having experienced some form of sexual harm online in their childhood. More than 100 million images or videos of children being sexually abused were found online last year, and this may be just the tip of the iceberg. 98% of these images show children under 13 years- children who have to live with the ongoing trauma of their abuse circulating online perpetually.

“For a very long time, I was very stressed, and I slept very badly […] what would happen if those images came out, and what would everyone think of me? […] in my head it had just sort of taken on this enormous catastrophic proportion that my life was going to end”- Nora, Survivor.

In an unregulated online world, children are easily contacted by offenders, manipulated to share intimate images and sent inappropriate content. The online solicitation of children for sexual activities (known as ‘grooming’) increased by more than 300% between 2021 and 2023.

Children as young as 3-6 are being groomed and coerced into engaging in sexual behaviour, including penetrative and sadism activities, via webcams. In absence of adequate safeguards, encrypted platforms are used by offenders to exploit children with impunity. In addition, advancements in artificial intelligence and virtual reality are being used to create child sexual abuse material with the click of a button.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Together we can take action to end the Child Sexual Abuse Crisis and protect children from further harm.

EU Member States and Members of the European Parliament have a critical opportunity to adopt a strong EU legislative framework, with the Regulation to prevent and fight child sexual abuse and the Recast Directive on Child Sexual Abuse. Those legislations must be tailored to the realities children face offline and online, and ensure comprehensive protection and prevention measures that ultimately safeguard children’s rights. For this, the Regulation must enable the prevention, detection, removal and reporting of all forms of child sexual abuse content (including grooming) in all online spaces where children are present, including encrypted spaces. The Directive must criminalise child sexual abuse online as much as offline, extend the limitation periods for reporting and require States to provide an evidence-based, trauma-informed and child-centric response to child sexual abuse.

The UN Convention on the Rights of theChild, to which EU countries are signatories, and General Comment n°25 of the Child Rights Committee is clear that the best interests of the child should always be front and centre in decisions relative to children. We urge EU policymakers to act in full respect of international standards when deciding on these pieces of legislation.

Together these tools can effectively tackle the current Child Sexual Abuse Crisis and create a safer internet, and childhood, for children in Europe.

Read the full letter including the signatories HERE.