'Nothing pornographic about child sexual abuse material' - MEP Dalli

The fight against child abuse online is a global fight and only by bringing all resources together can tangible difference be achieved, Labour MEP Miriam Dalli said marking the European Day on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse.

This week, the European Parliament´s committee on civil liberties voted in favour of a report on the implementation of an EU directive combating child sexual exploitation and abuse online.

The report aims to help the EU institutions better understand the manner by which member states are implementing EU rules on combating sexual abuse. It looked at the various deficiencies and gaps in the implementation of the 2011 Directive on Combating the Sexual Abuse and Sexual Exploitation of Children and Child Pornography.

MEP Dalli, as S&D shadow rapporteur on this file and spokesperson on the fight against Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse online, has repeatedly argued that there is nothing pornographic about child sexual abuse material.

Her work on this file saw Dalli meeting with Facebook, Thorn, the Internet Watch Foundation, EURISPA and the Maltese Children's Commissioner.

“Abuse is abuse, sexual abuse is sexual abuse and we must call it by its name. To continue to insist on calling child sexual abuse material ´child pornography´ is a major insult to the thousands upon thousands of victims of this heinous crime,” Dalli said.

Amongst the gaps identified in the report is that, often, take down procedures are not adhered to by the Internet service providers.

During her interventions, Miriam Dalli argued that enforcing a takedown of abusive material is the logical way to go in protecting victims.

“Blocking doesn´t help the victim,” she said. “If we truly want to help victims, we must empower them with the ability of redress, which involves the judicial process.”

Dalli called for the utilisation of every possible resource to help combat this phenomena.

“This includes empowering society with the right tools, allowing citizens to report with ease abusive material to the authorities,” she said.

Moreover, Dalli believes that educating children about the risks online is an important preventive measure in the fight against criminals who target children for their own profit.