- Take-down report 2023: German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) received 54,613 reports on child sexual abuse material
- Annual Report of the “eco Complaints Office” hotline documents successful work in 2023
- CSAM Regulation: Focusing on the principle of “taking down instead of blocking” and taking greater account of the hotlines network
The German federal government published its evaluation report on the take-down of child sexual abuse material on the Internet in the year 2023. According to the report, a total of 54,613 external reports on child sexual abuse material were statistically recorded at the German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) in 2023, more than doubling compared to the previous year.
German hotlines fulfil an important function in reporting, processing and taking down
This year’s report also highlights the effective cooperation between the law enforcement agencies and the German hotlines.
“The current report documents the successful cooperation with the BKA and the indispensable bridging function of German hotlines as the most important reporters. This enables the eco Complaints Office to offer a low-threshold and anonymous reporting of content,” says Alexandra Koch-Skiba, Head of the eco Complaints Office.
In 2023, the BKA received 22,503 reports from German hotlines, a significant increase compared to 7,679 in 2022. In total, 51.3% (2022: 98.8%) of all reports of child sexual abuse material URLs came from these sources. The percentage decrease is explained by the direct report of a German image hoster, which was recorded as a “private individual informant”.
“Due to the high proportion of reports received by the BKA via the hotlines, sufficient personnel and material resources will continue to be required both on the part of law enforcement and at the hotlines, so that, even if the number of cases continues to risk, the identification of perpetrators and victims as well as the prosecution and take-down of child sexual abuse material can be achieved effectively and efficiently,” says Koch-Skiba.
Annual Report of the eco Complaints Office documents successful work: 100% take-down rate for websites hosted in Germany with content classified as child sexual abuse (still referred to in legal terms as Child Pornography*) under criminal law in 1.86 days
The eco Complaints Office’s own Annual Report for the past year recorded 17,493 justified complaints, which presents a new record. Sexual violence and boundary violations against children and young people continued to account for the majority (91%) of complaints received. A total of 60,151 reports related to this topic.
Websites hosted in Germany with depictions of sexual abuse were taken down 100.0% of the time and within an average of approximately 1.86 days. Worldwide, such content was removed in approximately 6 days with an overall success rate of 98.35 per cent. This means that availability times actually fell in 2023 compared to the previous year, which underlines the importance of the work of the hotlines and the functionality of the principle of “taking down instead of blocking”.
CSAM Regulation: Focus on the principle of “taking down instead of blocking” and recognise the role of the hotlines network
The EU Commission’s proposal for a regulation on preventing and combatting child sexual abuse (CSAM Regulation for short) continues to be the subject of much debate and significant criticism.
“We need a strong political commitment to the existing complaint office structures at national and international level. The eco, FSM and jugendschutz.net hotlines in Germany as well as the other hotlines of the international network INHOPE, are important points of contact for reporting depictions of abuse. This important bridging function should not be jeopardised by new regulatory initiatives. We are convinced that taking down instead of blocking is the most effective way to combat illegal Internet content. The current European regulatory initiatives should support this approach and better incorporate existing structures and cooperations,” says Koch-Skiba.
About the eco Complaints Offices:
For more than 25 years, the eco Complaints Office’s work has been based on an approach involving voluntary self-regulation by providers and the commitment of Internet users. From the outset, eco has cooperated with law enforcement agencies in the fight against child sexual abuse and other illegal Internet content. If preferred, anybody who might have reservations about directly contacting the police can anonymously submit a report to the eco Complaints Office.
The success statistics and further information on all areas of the eco Complaints Office’s work can be found in the current Annual Report 2023.
Further information about the eco Complaints Office can be found at: eco-complaints-office
* This “terminus technicus” of the legal text is used exclusively to differentiate between individual offences in the field of depictions of sexual abuse and border violations against minors. This is used when referring to depictions of abuse of children as defined in Section 184b StGB of the German Criminal Code. This explicitly does not constitute an endorsement of the terminology still embedded in criminal law. Capitalised terms such as Child Pornography are terms derived directly from German law.
