On the occasion of the European Day for the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse, a week of action starts today in North Rhine-Westphalia. Under the motto "Together strong against child pornography", this year's focus is on the distribution of child pornographic content by children and young people in messaging services.
"Child pornography is increasingly being distributed by children and young people," said Minister of the Interior Herbert Reul. In fact, the perpetrators of child pornography are almost as old as the victims. "This may come as a surprise at first, but it soon becomes clear. If a video with child pornography content is sent in a school class WhatsApp chat, anyone who receives and forwards this video is liable to prosecution. In the worst case, the entire school class," says Reul.
In 2020, 45% of child pornography offenders were children or young people. Compared to 2019, the proportion of underage suspects has even increased - by more than 120%: from 887 underage suspects to 1,969 in 2020. Children and young people usually share child pornography content without any knowledge of it. "They are not aware that they are making themselves liable to prosecution by distributing it," says Reul. "That's why we need broad education and information for children and young people, parents, educators and teachers. So that we can also stop the spread of images and videos on these channels," said the Minister of the Interior. "And that's why we also need this week of action, in which we show our concentrated power against child pornography."
For seven days, the North Rhine-Westphalian Ministry of the Interior, the State Office of Criminal Investigation and the 47 district police authorities will be raising awareness of the protection of children from sexual violence. With numerous activities and posts on social networks, adults, children and young people throughout the state are to be made aware of this problem.
With the "Together strong against child pornography" initiative, North Rhine-Westphalia is supporting the "Prevent abuse!" campaign as well as the "#denkenstattsenden" and "sounds wrong" social media campaigns of the Police Crime Prevention Program of the federal states and the federal government (ProPK).
The campaign week will last until November 25, 2021 and will take place every year from now on.
Further information and videos can be found under the following links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bamsmjrzMeE