All cases of sexual abuse of children – no matter if they are a result of a physical meeting, or committed purely online – should be criminalized, says a new Council of Europe’s opinion on “online grooming” presented in Strasbourg today.
The opinion was adopted by the Lanzarote Committee bringing together all 36 states who ratified the Council of Europe’s legally binding Convention on Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse (the Lanzarote Convention).
Drafted in 2007, the Lanzarote Convention may not meet today’s and, more importantly, tomorrow’s challenges with regard to online grooming, the document says: the definition of solicitation for sexual purposes and its limits are unclear; some forms of online behaviour that can be traumatic for children are not explicitly covered.
The text of the Convention will not change, but the opinion provides useful guidance for states who want to go one step further in fighting online grooming and criminalize it. The responsibility for the investigation and prosecution of online grooming should remain with law enforcement authorities and the criminal justice. Specialized NGOs can provide assistance, but should not replace law enforcement.
The document was presented at the joint UN/Council of Europe’s high-level cross-regional meeting on the protection of children from sexual violence that started today. The event was opened by Gabriella Battani-Dragoni, Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Marta Santos Pais, Special Representative of the UN Secretary General on Violence against Children, and Maud de Boer-Buquicchio, UN Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.
Извор: Совет на Европа – 18.06.2015
