Child pornography offense

The distribution of child pornography on the Internet is a crime of international dimension. With the Internet, national borders have lost their meaning. The exchange of data over long distances is possible without any problems and in a matter of seconds - a circumstance that poses enormous challenges to law enforcement authorities in Germany and worldwide.

Child pornography is the depiction of real-life abuse of a child, which in some cases may be ongoing. The Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) therefore attaches great importance to combating child pornography. The function of the BKA as the national central office of the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) and the European Criminal Police Office (Europol) takes on particular importance against this background.

In the Serious and Organized Crime (SO) department, the “Central Office for Sexual Offenses to the Detriment of Children and Adolescents” performs the tasks of a link between domestic and foreign law enforcement authorities as well as a national central evaluation and coordination center for these authorities.

The BKA currently receives most of the information about files with child pornography content from the US non-governmental organization National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). In 2018, the NCMEC sent the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) around 70,000 reports of child pornography or images of abuse online that had a connection to Germany. This meant a doubling of the number of reports compared to 2017 and at the same time a rapid increase in the number of reports that has been going on for six years. A similarly high number is expected for 2019.

In most of the NCMEC's ​​reports, the perpetrator is being investigated on suspicion of obtaining possession and distributing child pornography. In addition, there are always outstanding cases in which ongoing sexual abuse of a child can be uncovered and clarified as part of the investigation.

Increased unthinking distribution by young people.

Particularly on social networks such as Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat, videos, images or links can be forwarded easily and exponentially. It is becoming more and more common to see that files are probably not forwarded for pedosexual motives, but rather that children, teenagers and young adults in particular are forwarding videos to their contacts and contact groups in a large number of cases without apparently giving sufficient thought to the child pornographic nature of the videos to make shared files.

These videos often show actions by children that objectively fall into the realm of child pornography, but give the impression that the children were being filmed in their sexual experimentation and discovery phase. However, there are also video files in which children apparently film themselves during mutual sexual practices.

The people shown repeatedly become victims of the distribution of child pornography - the motives behind it are irrelevant. In the worst case, these are victims of abuse who are victimized again and again by being forwarded.

These files are often distributed without reflection because the distributors find the representations, which are often subsequently accompanied by music or noises, funny. WhatsApp groups with many group participants and a high volume of files exchanged also play a major role. What these cases have in common is that the senders - mostly children, young people, but also young adults - are mostly not clear about the consequences for themselves or the recipients. The suspects in these cases therefore differ fundamentally from those with pedosexual motivation. Prevention work on this topic and educating young people are therefore particularly important.

Dr. Sabine Vogt, head of the “Serious and Organized Crime” department at the BKA:  

“Combating the underlying offense of sexual abuse of children is a particular concern of the BKA. Simply by forwarding child pornographic images and films on social networks, the amount of material circulating on the Internet multiplies exponentially. Forwarding such images and films is not a petty crime. Therefore, our urgent request: Delete these files immediately and do not forward them under any circumstances!! And as a general rule: Do not forward naked pictures of minors! The police investigate such cases consistently. Adolescents and young adults must be made aware, especially by their legal guardians, but also through prevention work, that these actions expose themselves to criminal prosecution. The providers of apps and chat forums are also called upon to play an active role in protecting children who have already become victims.”

In line with this topic

Stop the spread of child pornography!

Source: BKA pm191028_HandoutPK.pdf


If you enjoyed this post and value the importance of well-founded information, become part of the exclusive Mimikama Club! Support our work and help us promote awareness and combat misinformation. As a club member you receive:

📬 Special Weekly Newsletter: Get exclusive content straight to your inbox.
🎥 Exclusive video* “Fact Checker Basic Course”: Learn from Andre Wolf how to recognize and combat misinformation.
📅 Early access to in-depth articles and fact checks: always be one step ahead.
📄 Bonus articles, just for you: Discover content you won't find anywhere else.
📝 Participation in webinars and workshops : Join us live or watch the recordings.
✔️ Quality exchange: Discuss safely in our comment function without trolls and bots.

Join us and become part of a community that stands for truth and clarity. Together we can make the world a little better!

* In this special course, Andre Wolf will teach you how to recognize and effectively combat misinformation. After completing the video, you have the opportunity to join our research team and actively participate in the education - an opportunity that is exclusively reserved for our club members!


Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )