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According to Europol, the volume of child sexual abuse imagery being shared online is increasing worldwide & so to identify victims and to catch perpetrators, police around the world must adopt new methods and approaches.
On June 1st, police in Europol posted onto its website, 20 cropped images of everyday objects from the backgrounds of child sex-abuse images. The images included everyday items from shampoo bottles and shopping bags to distinctive clothing of perpetrators and victims & even buildings. They say that even tiny observations about the origin of an item can lead to an abuser being caught.
Europol admits that such an approach does carry risks, like tipping off an abuser who might be under investigation and the methods being deployed, but the agency says that it is balancing that risk against the threat of ongoing abuse of children as depicted in the photographs, which it wants to bring to a swift end. This can be seen as a last opportunity measure to finally catch the criminals involved in their investigations.
Anyone who recognises anything about the photographs, are urged to contact Europol. They can do so anonymously via the agencies website or they can do so via social media.
Full information at:
www.europol.europa.eu/stopchildabuse
Prepared by Anne Kelleher, RENATE Communications Person.
EUROPOL launches public appeal to help identify victims of child sexual exploitation.