Child Safety Online Must Be a Priority

Winnipeg, Canada — The Canadian Centre for Child Protection (C3P), along with 14 global organizations is launching the Child Safety Online Now (#ChildSafetyOnlineNow) campaign that supports the European Commission’s proposal to tackle the rampant and growing spread of child sexual abuse online.

Your power and influence on online safety standards

1. 1 in 5 users of digital services in the EU is a child.¹
2. 62% of all reported child sexual abuse material (CSAM) in 2021 was hosted in Europe.²
3. In 2021, 85 million pieces of CSAM were reported online.³ This is a growth of 35 per cent from 2020.⁴
4. Public polling shows widespread public support (68%) for the use of technical tools to identify child sexual abuse material and for the European Union to introduce legislative change to help improve child safety.⁵

The European Commission's proposal aims to make it mandatory for technology platforms to detect, report, and remove CSAM. This will have a huge impact in protecting children, preserving children’s privacy, and reducing the devastating harm this content has on survivors of child sexual abuse. The proposal also aims to establish an EU Centre that will be responsible for coordinating actions between online service providers and law enforcement agencies to end child sexual abuse online while also providing support to child victims of sexual abuse in the EU. A crucial element of the proposal asks online service providers to always report cases of grooming, a vital measure to prevent harm before it happens.

With the #ChildSafetyOnlineNow campaign, Missing Children Europe, National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, ECPACT, Brave Movement, C3P, Internet Watch Foundation, NSPCC, End Violence Against Children, Thorn, 5 Rights Foundation, Terre des Hommes, WeProtect Global Alliance, Inhope, and Child Helpline International aim to raise awareness of the pressing need to protect children online and support the European Commission proposal to both prevent and combat child sexual abuse online.

We have waited years for tech companies to do the right thing and voluntarily take action to stop child sexual abuse on their platforms – now it is time for regulation. Almost half of all CSAM removal notices issued by Project Arachnid had previously been flagged to the same providers, meaning that tech companies are allowing known CSAM to be re‑uploaded on their services. It is time for governments to do what only they can. We applaud the EU for leading the world in requiring tech companies to employ proactive detection to prevent harm from occurring on their services,” says Lianna McDonald, Executive Director of C3P.

The campaign includes a hero video, website, and social media content available in EN, FR, IT, ES, DE & NL.

1. 1 5Rights, The Digital Services Act must deliver for children, 2022 ↩
2. 2 IWF, Annual Report, 2021 ↩
3. 3 European Commission, May 2022 ↩
4. 4 Guardian, March 2022 ↩
5. 5 ECPAT, Project Beacon: What do EU Citizens think of the balance between online privacy and child protection?, 2021 ↩