Guiding principles for addressing technology-facilitated child sexual exploitation and abuse
After a 15-year-old girl was found victim of rape in an immersive video game in the Metaverse, reports of technology-facilitated child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA) have continued to mount.
Significant initiatives span the Global North and South, with many treaties, instruments, and policies emerging to protect children from violence, which includes technology-facilitated CSEA. However, the pace of technological change and evolving online risks require the same rapidity in cultivating a shared understanding of technology-facilitated CSEA that adjusts to the changing digital environment. We need practitioners to define and understand these problems so that we can build effective solutions to keep children safe.
The joint LSE and 5Rights Digital Futures for Children research centre has published a report to further our collective understanding of technology-facilitated CSEA to support a holistic child rights approach. The findings culminate in the forming of six principles that aim to complement ongoing interventions and efforts to tackle technology-facilitated CSEA in diverse contexts.
- Principle 1: Children’s voices count.
- Principle 2: Language matters.
- Principle 3: Take care with context.
- Principle 4: Avoid blaming children.
- Principle 5: Future proof policy.
- Principle 6: Embrace a child rights approach.
This report identifies and explores how technology-facilitated CSEA is conceptualised, measured and integrated into policy, legislation and prevention & response systems. Ultimately developing our understanding of the unique factors of technology-facilitated violence, the influence of culture & language, adult misrepresentations of children’s digital encounters, and the problematic nature of our assumptions around harm.
By providing these principles, the Digital Futures for Children centre looks to better equip policy debate and discussions to deal with the evolving nature of technology, and the implication it has on CSEA and related risks.
