PRESENTATION OF THE INTERNET WATCH FOUNDATION ANNUAL REPORT

MEP Javier Zarzalejos participated this week in the presentation of the report prepared annually by the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) and that collects the main data of its work of search and removal of child sexual abuse content online.

Thus, the IWF explained that throughout the year 2022 it evaluated 375,230 reports with images of child sexual abuse, of which 66% were hosted on servers on the European continent and, specifically, 59% in member countries of the European Union.

Of these reports, 96% contained images of girls, although the victims of the most cruel abuse (penetration, sadism and use of animals) are boys. In addition, four out of five images analyzed by the IWF were self-generated by minors, either voluntarily or under coercion, extortion or abuse.

The presentation of the report was led by IWF President Andrew Puddephatt, with the participation of Tjade Stroband, Director of European Government Affairs at Microsoft, Yves Goethals, member of the Belgian Federal Police, and Javier Zarzalejos in his capacity as the European Parliament’s lead rapporteur on the European Commission’s legislative proposal to prevent and combat child sexual abuse.

Zarzalejos expressed his gratitude to the Foundation for the work they carry out and for their contribution through the publication of these annual reports to draw attention to and raise awareness of the alarming figures of child sexual abuse.

During the debate, the participants discussed, among other issues, the paradigm shift introduced by the European Commission’s legislative proposal, the challenge posed by encryption in detecting child sexual abuse content and grooming situations, and the role to be played by the future European Center for Combating and Preventing Child Sexual Abuse. Finally, all the guests agreed on the importance of reinforcing prevention in the fight against this scourge.