The Commission provides funding for projects fighting child sexual abuse through regular calls for proposals under both the Internal Security Fund and Horizon Europe framework programme for research and innovation.
The Commission has funded, amongst others:
- the INHOPE network, where Internet users can report child sexual abuse materials they encounter online
- the International Child Sexual Exploitation (ICSE) database at Interpol, which enables the identification of victims globally training for practitioners, research and development new forensic approaches and systems for operational priority setting
- Aviator project, a tool that helps prioritise reports of online child sexual abuse, improving the process of identifying perpetrators and saving victims
- Horizon 2020 projects, notably:
- GRACE, which aims to equip European law enforcement agencies with advanced analytical and investigative capabilities to respond to the spread of online child sexual exploitation material
- LOCARD, a platform for storage of digital evidence data and appropriate chain custody in juridical work
- RAYUELA, to educate young people in the benefits, risks and threats linked to the use of the Internet by playing, thus preventing and mitigating cybercrime
- HEROES, to use technology to improve support to victims of human trafficking and child sexual abuse
Recent calls
Internal Security Fund: Prevention of and combatting child sexual abuse
The open call for proposals made available 16 million EUR for projects on prevention and combatting child sexual abuse, specifically to:
Foster and encourage initiatives to reduce the incidence of child sexual abuse online and offline, including programmes for offenders and people who fear that they might offend, and to ensure that victims of child sexual abuse receive appropriate and holistic support.
Develop the capacity to effectively fight child sexual abuse online. The goal is to enhance the technical toolset available to detect, investigate and prosecute child sexual abuse.
The call closed on 24 February 2022.
Horizon Europe: Technologies to identify digital Child Sexual Abuse Material
The call on Technologies to identify digital Child Sexual Abuse Material aims to foster the development of AI tools and technologies (including classifiers) to identify digital child sexual abuse material. The overall goal is to support the work of law enforcement and hotlines, improving the identification, categorisation and prioritisation of large data sets of digital child sexual abuse material.
The call closed on 5 April 2022.