Safe Internet for our children: results of a national child sexual abuse reporting mechanism

In the first four months after its launch, 3,401 photo and video images of children in sexually explicit poses were registered through the national mechanism for reporting child sexual abuse content.

The results of the piloting of the national reporting mechanism and their elimination were presented on 12 September during a press conference with the participation of Adrian Efros, Minister of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Moldova, ES Kent D. Logsdon, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Republic of Moldova, Viorel Cerneutianu, Head of the General Inspectorate of Police, and Elena Botezatu, Executive Director of the International Centre “La Strada”.

Adrian Efros, Minister of the Interior, said, “In recent years, the number of reported cases of sexual abuse of children on the Internet has increased dramatically. For this reason, this national reporting mechanism was created and put in place. MAI meets international requirements for protection in the online environment and aims to bring together a variety of tools to ensure a safer internet for the most vulnerable part of the population – children.”

H.E. Kent D. Logsdon, U.S. Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Moldova, elaborated on the support provided by the U.S. Embassy in the field of combating cybercrime, particularly online sexual abuse and exploitation of children.