The assistance and reporting service in the case of online sexual abuse should be much more efficiently promoted. Any child who experienced online abuse should know where to report an abuse and what specialists can help them. Moreover, a service to block and remove child sexual abuse evidence from the Internet is needed. Such recommendations were formulated by survivors of online sexual abuse and exploitation who took part in a research conducted by the International Center “La Strada”, IPN reports.

The research involved ten survivors of abuse and 54 social sector specialists who provide services to children. The main conclusions and recommendations of the research are presented in connection with the European Day on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation that is celebrated on November 18.

The Center “La Strada” noted that most of the survivors consider the parents or persons who look after children who experienced online abuse should also benefit from the support of specialists so as to better understand what happened to the child. Also, the children should be able to choose the professionals with whom to interact, either male or female. Addiitonal effort should be made to avoid the repeated traumatization of children and to ensure confidentiality at all the stages of the legal process and in the provision of support services.

The research authors voiced hope that these recommendations will be taken into account by the public authorities, particularly the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection, in the process of working out the new National Child Protection Program.