Specific Action Prevent CSA@EU
“Towards a Coordinated and Cooperative Effort for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse at a European level”
Aim
The aim of the Action “Towards a Coordinated and Cooperative Effort for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse at a European level” is to strengthen existing and to explore new cooperation modes on the fight against child sexual abuse, as well as the fight against online child exploitation and grooming, by building on previous research, developing new tools and by creating synergies among interested parties, following the rationale of the European Strategy for a more effective fight against child sexual abuse COM(2020)607, the EU Regulation No 2021/1232, and the proposed EU Regulation COM(2022)209.
Objectives
Specific objectives of the project are:
a. to practically facilitate the cooperation between national authorities, service providers and EU services towards the effective prevention and combating of the online CSA, exploitation and grooming, especially the detection, reporting and removal of online child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and child sexual exploitation material (CSEM) and
b. to contribute in setting out clear obligations and responsibilities of law enforcement, service providers, and any other relevant actors in the public and private sectors in the field of child protection, to timely and systematically take action to prevent and tackle CSA, especially online cases where the future EU Centre will focus, according to No COM(2022)209.
To achieve the specific objectives, a series of activities will be implemented by the project’s Consortium with the involvement of relevant stakeholders, within two years, including: the conduction of necessary studies and reviews of national and EU legislation during the preparatory phase; the development of a CSA indicators’ database, such as hashes (Annotated Hash Database), and necessary material to support detection, identification, reporting and removal of child sexual abuse material; a pilot implementation phase of the database where validation and standardization will take place; reporting and drafting recommendations addressing relevant stakeholders at national and EU level as well as horizontal activities including project management, ethical supervision and safeguarding data as well as dissemination of project’s results and awareness raising of citizens to report CSA related incidents to authorities. All activities that will be implemented during the project’s life will adhere to the rules concerning the protection of personal data (GDPR) and will be flexibly incorporated on any arrangements eventually adopted in the framework of the European Center for combating CSA in the entire EU territory.
Funding
The Action PreventCSA@EU is funded by the Internal Security Fund (ISF) in the context of the call for expression of interest for the “Specific Action Support to prevent and combat child sexual abuse – CSA” (ISF/2022/SA/1.4.1.)