Voluntary Principles to Counter Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse
Actions developed by the Five Country Ministerial to counter online child sexual exploitation and abuse.
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At the Five Country Ministerial Digital Industry Roundtable on 30 July 2019 in London, the Five Country Ministers agreed “tackling [the online child sexual abuse] epidemic requires an immediate upscaling of the global response to ensure that all children across the globe are protected…and that there is no safe space online for offenders to operate.”
As a result, the Five Countries developed the Voluntary Principles to Counter Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, in consultation with six leading technology companies and a broad range of other experts from industry, civil society and academia.
The Voluntary Principles cover issues ranging from combating child sexual abuse material, online grooming and livestreaming of child sexual abuse to protecting victims, and industry transparency and reporting. They are designed to be flexible for all companies, regardless of their size or platform format, to implement, and provide a strong message for companies to address the scale and nature of the online child sexual abuse facilitated by their platforms.
The Five Country governments have partnered with the WePROTECT Global Alliance - an international body comprising government, industry and civil society members - to promote the Principles globally and drive collective industry action. The WePROTECT Global Alliance will also connect subject matter experts to share best practices, and analyse the evolving threat environment to identify gaps in the global response.
Five Country governments remain the ultimate owners of the Principles and will work closely with the WePROTECT Global Alliance to ensure they remain fit for purpose for emerging trends and threats. Relevant companies, non-government organisations and global experts are encouraged to endorse or support the Voluntary Principles.
Your company or organisation can endorse the Voluntary Principles at any time. These are entirely voluntary commitments to demonstrate your support for action against this crime. To ensure we can highlight and amplify this and for guidance on how you can implement the Principles, please contact [email protected].
Updates to this page
Published 5 March 2020Last updated 24 March 2022 + show all updates
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Added Five Country Ministerial Statement on the second anniversary of the launch of the Voluntary Principles.
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Updated WePROTECT Global Alliance email.
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The email contact point for the Voluntary Principles to Counter Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse has been updated to [email protected].
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First published.