PRESS RELEASE

CESAGRAM PRESS RELEASE
18 december 2024
CESAGRAM Conference Explores Strategies to Combat Online Grooming and How it Can Lead to Children Going Missing

“I have no advice to give to my younger self; she was perfect just as she was. Instead, I ask myself, as the adult I am today: What can I do to make the world a safer place where she can trust others without the fear of being exploited?” – Gabriella Kärnekull Wolfe, Survivor of Online Grooming and contributor to the CESAGRAM Survivor Report

Brussels, 18th December 2024

On December 9th and 10th 2024, Missing Children Europe hosted “The Missing Voice in Grooming” conference in Brussels, bringing together experts and survivors to discuss effective ways to tackle online grooming that leads to child sexual abuse and disappearances. The results of the two-year European-funded project CESAGRAM (Comprehensive European Strategy against Grooming and Missing) were presented at the event.

  • Survivor insights: Theresa Ryan-Rouger, the project coordinator, shared findings from interviews with 20 survivors, bridging the knowledge gap between online grooming and children going missing. Two survivors shared their experiences and key policy recommendations.
  • CESAGRAM innovations: the project developed groundbreaking tools to combat online grooming. These include an AI-powered detection tool for identifying grooming and the CESAGRAMVILLE, an online gamified platform designed to help young people recognise grooming behaviors. To support these tools, an educational curriculum was developed to complement classroom activities addressing child sexual abuse and 183 law enforcement and frontline professionals received training, enhancing their ability to respond to victims of child sexual abuse. The consortium also presented the CESAGRAM Knowledge Hub, a resource center compiling the project’s deliverables and additional resources on the topic.
  • Legal analysis and advocacy: a comprehensive mapping of existing research, legislation, and policies on tech-facilitated grooming at EU and national levels was presented, providing well-informed and actionable recommendations for policymakers on preventing grooming and going missing.

Attendees also gained insights from psychologists, researchers, law enforcement professionals, NGOs, representatives of the European Commission, and Members of the European Parliament. The full agenda is available here.

Key takeaways:

  • Roundtable on barriers to prosecution: Panelists highlighted the urgent need for stricter offender accountability, emphasising that disclosure efforts must lead to justice to avoid re-victimising survivors. While incarceration plays an important role, understanding perpetrators’ contexts is critical for avoiding recidivism. Challenges such as jurisdictional authority, inconsistent data retention laws, and data protection provisions allowing data deletion hinder investigations. Experts called for a harmonised EU-wide data retention framework to keep evidence and ensure effective prosecutions. Creating safe spaces for survivors’ disclosures and providing specialised training to law enforcement and judicial professionals were identified as priorities.
  • Roundtable on barriers in utilising technology for prevention: Speakers highlighted that ethical and legal restrictions on sharing datasets are stalling progress in understanding online grooming behaviors. The roundtable underscored the importance of collaboration between NGOs, law enforcement, and tech companies to overcome these barriers. EU-wide initiatives can support funding, innovation, and stakeholder dialogue. Technological solutions must respect privacy while tackling encryption challenges and enhancing content moderation systems.
  • During the keynote speeches session:
    • Emilio Puccio, Secretary General of the European Parliament Intergroup on Children’s Rights, called for the inclusion of grooming detection in EU legislation, stressing that strong legal frameworks are critical to prevention.
    • MEP Nina Carberry reaffirmed her commitment to prioritising child protection during her mandate, advocating for a stronger framework to “detect, report, and prevent grooming in real-time and to enhance research to understand online vulnerabilities”.
    • Antonio Labrador Jimenez, Team Leader for Combating Child Sexual Abuse at the European Commission, emphasised the need for a “long-term framework to detect grooming and child sexual abuse material in private communications” and stressed the importance of replacing current temporary regulations, set to expire in 2026.
    • Iain Drennan, Executive Director of WeProtect Global Alliance, reminded attendees: “this is not a technological issue, this is a human issue, and each of us has a role to play”.
    • Henk Visser, Programme Manager at the European Commission, expressed the need to “keep the flame going” by creating a community of child sexual abuse fighters that goes beyond EU-funded projects.
  • Policy Discussion – Pathways to change in the EU: this panel provided hope for political momentum despite recent challenges in advancing the recast Directive 2011/93/EU. Antonio Labrador Jimenez of the European Commission noted opportunities for progress during trilogue discussions between EU institutions. MEP Maria Walsh highlighted the ongoing child sexual abuse epidemic, stressing the need to close child protection systems gaps, particularly for minority groups. Isaline Wittorski and Nathalie Meurens, representatives of the European Child Sexual Abuse Legislation Advocacy Group (ECLAG), emphasised the importance of grounding policies and legislation in trauma-based research. They also called for the urgent strengthening of the legal framework to address the CSA crisis, criticising the lack of responsibility from policymakers and online platforms. In addition, they advocated for comprehensive child protection measures, trauma support, and prevention efforts, including mandatory training for those working with children.

 

Photos

Available here. Credits to Alain Sannen.

Press Inquiries

Maria Carapuço, Communications Assistant at Missing Children Europe.

communicationsassistant@missingchildreneurope.eu

 

About the CESAGRAM project

The CESAGRAM (Comprehensive European Strategy against Grooming and Missing) project, coordinated by Missing Children Europe, includes 11 consortium members (CERTH, FBK, KU Leuven, KEMEA, TSoc, MPFSC, MCF, the Hellenic Police and the Ministry of Justice in Greece), along with a board of professional experts. The project aims to prevent online grooming and its associated risks, including disappearances, by developing a comprehensive strategy to combat online grooming and its connection to child disappearances, including public awareness initiatives, improved cooperation between frontline workers and law enforcement, and enhanced training for better recognition and intervention in online grooming cases.

 

About Missing Children Europe

Missing Children Europe represents 33 non-governmental organisations active in 27 countries across Europe for the prevention, protection, and support of missing and sexually exploited children and their families. We bridge the gap between research, policies, and organisations on the ground to protect children from any form of violence, abuse, or neglect that is caused by or results from them going missing. Missing Children Europe coordinates the network of the 116 000 hotline for missing children, and the network of cross-border family mediators, facilitating coordination for cases involving cross-border issues to ensure vulnerable children receive the help they need, wherever they are in Europe.

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Privacy Overview

TERMS OF USE - COOKIES POLICY - DATA PROTECTION POLICY

A. TERMS OF USE

The CESAGRAM project website https://cesagramproject.eu/ is owned by the CESAGRAM Consortium and managed by the Center for Security Studies (KEMEA), as a Consortium member.

CESAGRAM is a research project that has received funding from the EU-funded ISF project under grant agreement no. 101084974. The project started on 1 January 2023 and is scheduled to end on 31 December 2024. The CESAGRAM consortium consists of 11 partners from academia, NGOs, as well as public authorities. The present website is part of the dissemination and communication activities undertaken by the CESAGRAM consortium with the aim to successfully communicate its research outputs on a rather innovative topic to a wider public and facilitate the creation of synergies with interested stakeholders.

This website can provide all (hereafter referred to as ‘users’/‘visitors’) with information, participation, content delivery, or content collection services regarding the project CESAGRAM, under the terms of use included in this document.

The website is the sole responsibility of the Parties of the Consortium and cannot be considered to reflect the views of the European Commission. The use/visit of this website and/or its services is provided under the unconditional acceptance of the terms of use described herein. Navigating through this website, staying on this website, creating links to it (URL) or to its files/services, and archiving/bookmarking it, constitute acceptance of its terms of use.

The use of the website must be conducted solely under legitimate purposes and in a manner that does not restrict or impede its use by third parties. The user/visitor of this website is obligated to use it in accordance with the law and the present terms of use. The user/visitor of the website shall not commit any acts or omissions that may cause damage or malfunction and may adversely affect or endanger the provision of services provided through the website to citizens.

The content of the website, including (indicatively and not exhaustively) texts, graphics, images, videos, sounds, services, etc. (hereafter referred to as ‘Content’) is legally protected under the applicable Intellectual Property Rights legal framework and we reserve all rights of use and ownership of the Content, all copies created based on it, as well as all intellectual property rights and all other property rights pertaining to it.

We make reasonable efforts to ensure that the information and content that appears on the website is as accurate, true and up-to-date as possible. It also provides the content (e.g., information, names, photographs, pictures, images, data, etc.) and the services made available through the website ‘AS IS’. Under no circumstances, can we be held liable for any legal claims, civil or criminal, or damages of any kind (direct loss, special damage, or indirect loss) to the user/visitor of this website.

The website may contain links to third-party websites for the sole purpose of providing information to the user/visitor. The referral to links belonging to third-party websites does not constitute an endorsement of their views and actions or the acceptance of the content they express, publish or post. Third-parties – owners of the websites/responsible under the law – are solely responsible for the content of their websites or for any damage that may result from their use when the user / visitor of the Website gains access to them.

We make all efforts to ensure the proper function of our network but we do not guarantee that our server operations will be uninterrupted or error-free, free from viruses, malicious software or other similar elements.

The terms and conditions of use of this website, as well as any amendment thereof, are governed by and supplemented by the applicable national and European law and the applicable international treaties. Any provision of these terms which is found to be against the above legal framework or is rendered invalid ceases to be valid and enforceable and shall be withdrawn from the present terms, without in any way undermining the validity of the remaining terms.

The terms and conditions of use of this website constitute the overall agreement between the Consortium and the users/visitors of its webpages and services and bind solely them. No modification of the terms of use is taken into account and is part of this agreement, unless it is expressed in writing and is incorporated in the present Terms of Use. Unless otherwise stated on this website, the above terms of use are immediately applicable in their entirety. We unilaterally reserve the right to modify, add, alter the content or services of the Website and its terms of use, whenever it deems necessary, without prior notice, through this website, always within the legal framework in force.

You may access the website https://cesagramproject.eu/ without having to disclose any data about your person. Nevertheless, the installed browser on your device sends automatically information to the server of the CESAGRAM website, including information about your browser type and version, as well as the date and time of access, so as to establish a connection and permit your access to the website.

B. COOKIES POLICY

We use cookies and analytics services to maintain and monitor the performance of the CESAGRAM website and to optimize our services, as well as to receive aggregate data that we can use in our dissemination reports for the European Commission.

Cookies are data files that are transferred from a web server to the Website visitor’s computer, in order to keep statistics and to provide the best experience to the visitor – strictly necessary and functional cookies. Cookies are an industry standard used by most websites to facilitate the user’s repeated access to a website and its use through the personalisation of the service provided as they can store the personal choices of the user. Cookies are not harmful to the user’s computer system or its files, and apart from the user himself/herself/themselves, only the website from which a particular cookie has been transferred to his or her or their computer can read, modify it or delete it.

If the user/visitor does not wish his or her or their information to be collected through cookies, he or she can use the “reject” option on banner. It should be noted, however, that discarding cookies may result in making it more difficult or impossible to use certain parts of the Website, and/or that there is a change in its intended appearance and operation, as a permanent connection will be required. At all events, the user/visitor can manage the collection of any cookies through the website’s settings.

We shall contain such data in hardcopy and electronic files and/or databases in full compliance with data protection legislation, including security and confidentiality requirements based on the principles of good practice, proportionality and transparency regarding processing.

The CESAGRAM website will use the Matomo for WordPress plugin. Matomo is an open-source web analytics platform. A web analytics platform is used by KEMEA (the website owner), in order to measure, collect, analyse and report visitor’s data for dissemination and reporting of the project purposes. For more information, we advise you to visit: https://matomo.org/ . Matomo settings are customized, so that the visitor’s IP address is anonymized.User ID tracking and content tracking are disabled. We have also disabled first -party analytics cookies and all third-party cookies . Essential non-analytics cookies may be created, for which you will be asked to consent. You may choose to prevent this website from aggregating and analysing the actions you take here. For that reason, you will be asked whether you opt-in or out of tracking.

Please, note that you will be asked to consent on the use and storage of cookies and/or trackers.

C. DATA PROTECTION POLICY

The present data protection policy clarifies in a layered manner the processing of personal information of visitors of the CESAGRAM project website. The data processing on the CESAGRAM website is pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (General Data Protection Regulation), Greek Law 4624/2019 on the protection of personal data and any other applicable law.

  1. Data Controller

The Data Controller is the Center for Security Studies (KEMEA) with offices in Athens, at P. Kanellopoulou str., 4, 10177 Greece. The Data Controller can be contacted by writing to the address above or by sending an e-mail message to kemea@kemea.gr , or by calling at Telephone: +30 2107710805 or sending a Fax at Fax number:  +30 211 100 4499.

  1. Data Protection Officer (DPO)

KEMEA’s Data Protection Officer may be reached at dpo@kemea-research.gr in case you have any question about the processing of your data when using the CESAGRAM website or you wish to exercise any of your rights as a data subject.

  1. Types of personal of personal data to be processed:
  • When visiting the CESAGRAM website

The IT systems and applications designated for the operation of this Website detect, during the course of their ordinary operation, certain data – the transmission of which is implicit in the use of Internet communication protocols – not associated with directly identifiable users.

The data collected may include cookies, IP addresses of computers used by users connecting to the site, the URI – Uniform Resource Identifier – addresses of the resources requested, the time of the request, the method used to send the request to the server, the size of the file obtained in response, the numerical code indicating the status of the response from the server (completed successfully, error, etc.) and other parameters relating to the operating system and the user’s IT environment.

  • When filing a question/request via our contact form

Other personal data collected are those provided by the user/visitor when corresponding with the e-mail addresses indicated on our website or when filling our online contact form or registering on the website (providing e.g., name, surname, username, password, e-mail address, institution/body etc.).

The sending of personal, non-mandatory data also by email on an optional, explicit and voluntary basis to the addresses indicated on this website means that the address of the sender is then acquired, this being necessary in order to respond to the request, together with any other personal data included in the message.

  1. Purposes of processing

The personal data of the user/visitor are processed for the following purposes:

  • communication for responding to any requests/questions submitted by the user/visitor,
  • security and proper functioning of the CESAGRAM website,
  • dissemination of the CESAGRAM project and its results, invitation to other relevant activities
  • compliance with legal or administrative obligations.
  1. Legal basis

The data processing takes place according to Article 6(1)(a) GDPR, your informed consent. You may withdraw your consent at any time with future effect, by sending an informal email to dpo@kemea-research.gr. We may also process personal data based on Article6(1)(c) GDPR, when the processing is necessary for our compliance with a legal obligation.

  1. Data recipients

Data recipients of:

  • Information that the Consortium is obligated or entitled by law, contract, judgement and regulatory decision to notify may be: public and independent administrative authorities, judicial authorities and public officials.
  • All the information necessary for the achievement of each specific purpose: the Administration and the relevant services of KEMEA and the CESAGRAM

KEMEA and the CESAGRAM Consortium shall not disclose, assign, exchange, grant or otherwise dispose, without the consent of the user/visitor, to third parties, natural or legal persons, personal data other than the cases mentioned above within the scope of national laws provisions and the General Data Protection Regulation.

  1. Data transfer

No transfer to non- EU countries/ international organizations is foreseen.

  1. Rights of the data subject

You have the following rights:

  • pursuant to Article 7(3) GDPR, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time and without any consequences for you. This means that in future we may no longer continue to process the data if the processing is based on this consent;
  • pursuant to Article 13 ,14 and  15 GDPR, you have the right to obtain information about whether your personal data are processed by us and where that is the case, access to those personal data. In particular, you have the right to obtain from us confirmation as to whether or not personal data concerning you are being processed, and, where that is the case, access to the personal data and the following information : the purpose of processing, the categories of the personal data, the categories of recipients, to whom your data has been or is disclosed to, the storage period planned, the existence of a right to request from the controller rectification, erasure, restriction of processing or objection, the existence of a right to lodge a complaint and the source of your data if it has not been collected by us. Pursuant to Article 12 GDPR, we must provide any communication relating to the processing to the data subject in a concise, transparent, intelligible and easily accessible form, using clear and plain language.
  • pursuant to Article 15 GDPR, and in case your personal data are processed by us, you have the right to access those personal data.
  • pursuant to Article 16 GDPR, you have the right to obtain the rectification of inaccurate personal data without undue delay or the completion of your personal data stored with us;
  • pursuant to Article 17 GDPR, you have the right to obtain the erasure of your personal data stored with us without undue delay, unless processing is necessary to exercise the right to freedom of expression and information, for compliance with a legal obligation, for reasons of public interest, for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes or to establish, exercise or defend legal claims;
  • pursuant to Article 18 GDPR, you have the right to request the restriction of the processing of your personal data under the conditions set by the applicable laws;
  • pursuant to Article 20 GDPR, you have the right to receive your personal data, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format or to obtain the transmission to another data controller (right to data portability);
  • pursuant to Article 77 GDPR, to lodge a complaint with a national supervisory authority. You can contact the supervisory authority of your habitual residence or workplace or our company headquarters. In the latter case, you can file a complaint with the Hellenic Data Protection Authority (gr)

If you wish to exercise any of your rights, you may contact us via e-mail at dpo@kemea-research.gr.

  1. Data retention

Your personal data is retained only for as long as it is necessary to fulfil the purposes described above, and they will be retained until 02 February 2031 (22/02/2031) as a maximum, unless a longer retention period is required by legal obligations or regulations.

  • Data security

Your personal data are processed by electronic means in compliance with the provisions of Article 32 of GDPR 2016/679, national law and in compliance with the principles of data’s confidentiality, integrity, and availability. Your personal data are transferred in an encoded manner using the widely used and secure TLS (Transport Layer Security) encryption standard. You will recognize a secure TLS connection by the additional “s” after “http” (i.e., https://..) in the address bar of your browser or from the lock icon. Moreover, we use suitable technical and organizational measures, which are being continuously enhanced, to protect your data against accidental or intentional manipulation, partial or complete loss, destruction or against unauthorized access by third parties.

  1. Amendments to this Data Protection Policy

This data protection policy is effective as of April 2023.

We keep our Data Protection Policy under regular review to make sure it is up to date and precise. Thus, it may become necessary to change it due to the potential addition of new features to the CESAGRAM website or due to further legal requirements. You can have access to the latest data protection information on the CESAGRAM website here.