The general objective of the project “Towards a Coordinated and Cooperative Effort for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse at a European level” (PreventCSAatEU) is to strengthen existing and to explore new cooperation modes on the fight against child sexual abuse and exploitation, by building on previous research, developing new tools and by creating synergies following the rationale of the European Strategy for a more effective fight against child sexual abuse COM(2020)607, the EU Regulation No 2021/1232, and the proposed EU Regulation COM(2022)209.
Specific objectives of the project are a. to practically facilitate the cooperation between Greek authorities, service providers and EU services towards the effective prevention and combating of the online CSA, exploitation and grooming, especially the detection, reporting and removal of online child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and child sexual exploitation material (CSEM) and b. to contribute in setting out clear obligations and responsibilities of law enforcement, service providers, and any other relevant actors in the public and private sectors in the field of child protection, to timely and systematically take action to prevent and tackle CSA, especially online cases where the future EU Centre will focus, according to No COM(2022)209. To achieve the specific objectives, a series of activities will be implemented by the project’s Consortium with the involvement of relevant stakeholders including:
- the conduction of necessary studies and reviews of national and EU legislation during the preparatory phase;
- the development of a CSA indicators’ database, such as hashes, and necessary material to support detection, identification, reporting and removal of child sexual abuse material as well as the fight against online child exploitation and grooming;
- a pilot implementation phase of the database where validation and standardisation will take place;
- reporting and drafting recommendations addressing relevant stakeholders at national and EU level, as well as horizontal activities including project management, ethical supervision and safeguarding data, as well as dissemination of the project’s results and awareness raising of citizens to report CSA-related incidents to authorities.
All activities that will be implemented during the project’s life will adhere to the rules concerning the protection of personal data (GDPR) and will be flexibly incorporated on any arrangements eventually adopted in the framework of the European Center for combating CSA in the entire EU territory.