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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