Online Child Sexual Exploitation on the Rise? / AMSTERDAM, April 16, 2014

AMSTERDAM, April 16, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -

- Internet hotlines, industry and law enforcement doing more than ever to fight it-

Today, INHOPE -

The International Association of Internet Hotlines published its new data set for the year 2013 showcasing key trends and emerging threats in the distribution of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM).

Online child sexual exploitation is likely to rise in the coming years, with ever-increasing Internet adoption rates globally and higher levels of demand for new abuse material. 

To prevent and protect, the unique partnerships between Internet hotlines, industry and law enforcement are delivering more now than ever, as shown in the INHOPE statistics for 2013. 

Digital citizens need to know where to report illegal content and criminal conduct. 

This is precisely why the INHOPE network continues to expand. http://inhope.org/tns/resources/statistics-and-infographics.aspx

"INHOPE and its member hotlines in 2013 have seen a sharp

14% increase in the number of illegal content complaints our analysts handle globally, with a dramatic increase, 

47%, in the number of confirmed Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) reports", 

said Russell Chadwick, Executive Director of INHOPE. 

"This material is removed quickly and effectively through close collaboration with industry and law enforcement to prevent further revictimisation while we provide actionable leads to law enforcement. 

Wherever the safety of children is concerned, it is critical we take action as a community".

As high-speed Internet continues to proliferate around the world and more users are coming online, regrettably there is a significant number of individuals who have an unhealthy sexual interest in children. 

While industry continues to invest more time and efforts into identifying and removing CSAM, we are likely to see an increase in incidents. 

With the help of the European Commission Safer Internet Programme, 

INHOPE is staying ahead of the tech curve and will be able to continue its unique work and do a lot more in the coming years with law enforcement and industry, 

with digital fingerprints of CSAM images and videos.

In 2013: 

• The INHOPE network was constituted of 49 Internet hotlines and present in 43 countries.
• 170 analysts processed 1,210,893 reports of illegal content.
• 54,969 reports were assessed to contain unique URLs of child sexual abuse material.
• 81% child victims were female. 
• 10% child victims were infants.
• In Europe, 97% was reported to law enforcement within a day.  93% was removed from the Internet within a week. On average, it takes approximately three days for the content to be removed. 

http://inhope.pr.co/74794-online-child-sexual-exploitation-likely-to-rise-in-the-coming-years

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/1854540#ixzz30Y47E4ic

UN allows Europe to return asylum seekers to Bulgaria

April 16, 2014 9:55 AM by Agence France-Presse

The UN says conditions at the refugee camps in Bulgaria have improved, such as at the Harmanli centre, where buildings with heating have replaced flimsy tents. 

AFP Photo / Dimitar Dilkoff

GENEVA, April 15, 2014 (AFP) – 

The United Nation’s refugee agency said yesterday it was partially lifting a call to stop returning asylum seekers to Bulgaria because conditions there had improved.

Under current rules, European countries must return asylum seekers to the first country on the continent they arrive in. 

But in January, the UN urged European nations to suspend all returns to Bulgaria, citing “systematic deficiencies in reception conditions and asylum procedures” after the country was swamped with refugees from war-ravaged Syria.

Yesterday the agency said the situation had improved, but the advice still stood for vulnerable people such as children or people suffering trauma or injuries.

“Since there have been significant improvements, we are relaxing our directive, but only partially,” 

UNHCR spokeswoman Melissa Fleming told reporters in Geneva. 

“People, such as children, women or people who are traumatised or injured or who have particular vulnerabilities, we are urging states: ‘Please don’t send them back to Bulgaria.’”

Last year, 7,144 people arrived in Bulgaria – the poorest country in the 28-nation EU – to request asylum, up from an annual average of 1,000 over the past decade, according to UNHCR numbers.

Bulgaria has repeatedly appealed to other countries to share the burden. But Fleming said there had been “significant improvements” in the conditions asylum seekers are hosted in.

At the Harmanli centre, not far from the Turkish border, asylum seekers had for instance been living in flimsy tents in the dead of winter four months ago. 

Today though, residents at that centre were housed in renovated buildings with heating and had access to daily hot meals and health care, she said.

Concerns remained however about two centres in the capital that jointly host more than 800 people, mainly Syrians. Sanitary facilities at those centres were “very limited,” the UNHCR said in a report Tuesday, citing a shortage of toilets and blocked sewage systems.

Bulgaria is currently hosting around 5,500 asylum seekers – about 2,000 are from Afghanistan and most of the others from Syria.

However, the UN agency said restricted access to Bulgarian territory along the Turkish border had “resulted in a marked decrease in the number of arrivals since December 2013″.

Fleming said there were also reports of Syrians and Palestinians based in the war-torn country, as well as Afghans and Sudanese nationals, being forcibly returned from Bulgaria without being able to apply for international protection, in some cases resulting in family separations.

http://www.aquila-style.com/focus-points/un-allows-europe-to-return-asylum-seekers-to-bulgaria/63450

TAGS: Afghanistan, asylum seekers, bulgaria, europe, Harmanli, Melissa Fleming, refugees, Syria, UNHCR, united nations

Traditional Games for Child Protection

Document authors Rennesson Gaël , Meuwly Michele Zones South Eastern Europe Type Toolkit / Handbook / Manual Date of publication 2012 Document main thematic Child Protection/ Related Topic Total pages 72

  Documents :

• fr
• en

The MOVE project, implemented by Terre des hommes (Tdh) in Eastern Europe (Romania, Moldova and Albania) and financed by UEFA over a period of four years (mid-2008/mid-2012), has trained more than 1000 animators/teachers in the methodology “Movement, Games and Sports”(MGS). 

This methodology avoids competition and exclusion, promotes more cooperation and integration in sports and games, reinforces the resilience of vulnerable children and improves their psychosocial well-being in general; all this, thanks to the development of their life skills (adaptability, cooperation, empathy, managing emotions, communication, responsibility, etc.). 

The people trained have hence allowed approximately 10’000 children to benefit from specific activities with very encouraging results, such as reduced aggressive behaviour, better relationships with their peers and with adults. 

Also, for the most vulnerable children, there was a clear improvement in their so called ‘dysfunctional’ behaviour.

The MOVE project has also proven in its three countries of intervention that the MGS methodology greatly contributes to child protection in the following way:

• By modifying the attitude of adults in charge of children for a larger participation of children as actors of their lives.
•  
• By reinforcing the life skills of children towards greater self-esteem, resilience and self-protection.
•  
• By participating in case management through games and feedback in order to facilitate the identification and protection of children at risk.
•  
• By reinforcing community involvement via the participation of key community members in activities and training.
•  
• By promoting the action of Terre des hommes in residential homes/prisons thanks to a comprehensive and fun tool that allows difficult topics to be dealt with.

With reference to this unique experience, we thought important to create a list of 15 traditional games played in these three countries of Eastern Europe in order to promote their culture and therefore allow a majority of people to benefit from these resources. 

In order to obtain an updated game manual for child protection that is accessible to everyone, we have added five ‘international’ games – those most often played and appreciated in the first manual of 20 games Laugh, run and move to develop together: games with a psychosocial aim’ developed par Terre des hommes in 2007.

The particular addition to this manual of traditional games, compared to the first manual mentioned above, is found in the chapter ‘Links with child protection’ added to every game. 

This chapter is to be used if needed as a tool for child protection by asking children questions about factors of self-protection. 

This makes this manual an important element of the Tdh child protection projects.

http://tdh-childprotection.org/documents/traditional-games-for-child-protection