The latest report by Child Focus highlights several worrying trends, from rising disappearances and increased sexploitation to a skyrocketing number of child sexual abuse images online.
Child Focus, the Belgian organisation for missing and sexually-exploited children, received a record number of reports of abuse images last year. It was sent a total of 2,421 reports from citizens who came across suspicious images of child sexual abuse online through its civil hotline, an increase of 32%.
"Each report can be a gateway to multiple websites with pages consisting of hundreds or even thousands of images," the report read. Child Focus analysed almost 254,000 such images (+93%) and sent out 909,243 requests for removal.
"But this is not enough. We are concerned and working against the clock to fight against child sexual abuse. New children are abused every day and technology is making it increasingly easy to produce and distribute images of abuse with impunity."
In light of this, the organisation called for the urgent adoption of a European regulation (CSA regulation). "That regulation forces online platforms to do a risk analysis and then remove images of abuse themselves." The Belgian EU Presidency recently formulated a compromise proposal, approved by the EU parliament. It is now before the Council.
Grooming, sextortion and deep nudes
Other notable and worrying figures regarding sex crimes against children were highlighted in the report. 'Sextortion' cases rose from 109 in 2022 to 183 new cases in 2023 (+68%) – which is where young people are enticed to send nude images of themselves and then extorted with the exchanged images. Three-quarters of the victims are boys.
The number of files on non-consensual sexting – where images are distributed without the consent of the person in the image – also reached a new record, while the organisation remarked that, for the first time, it received a number of files around nude images created with artificial intelligence, so-called "deep nudes". "Research shows that the impact of such an image on a victim is as devastating as with real images."
A total of 43 files related to grooming – the process by which an adult deliberately approaches minors with a sexual purpose – were opened, up from 36 in 2022. In one in five cases, the victims were boys.
The number of files on the sexual exploitation of minors in prostitution rose from 61 in 2022 to 73 new files last year. Most victims were between 14 and 17 years old, but in ten files, the victim was as young as 13 years old.
"Detection and identification of victims and tracking down perpetrators remain the biggest challenges. On the one hand, because the recruitment and solicitation of potential victims take place largely through social media and encrypted apps. On the other hand, we see that victims rarely file complaints themselves because they do not consider themselves victims."
More missing children
Last year also saw a significant increase in disappearance cases, with Child Focus recording 332 incidents of unaccompanied refugee minors who went missing in 2023, a 144% increase from 2022 (136 cases). The reports concern 256 children, 40 of whom left their facility more than once and returned.
"This increase may be due to better cooperation with reception centres, which reported disappearances to Child Focus more frequently over the past year," the organisation noted.
Child Focus also opened 1,394 new files of young people who ran away in 2023, an increase of no less than 22% since 2022. One in five files concerned disappearances of a "troubled nature". "We increasingly receives calls from children who are mentally struggling or parents who report that their runaway son or daughter is struggling with dark thoughts."
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Finally, 125 children were involved in 75 international child abductions by a parent (when one parent takes the child to another country without the other parent's consent) last year.
The organisation concluded that the sharp rise in reports of child disappearance and sexual exploitation "shows more than ever that there is a great need for prevention".
