Every day, thousands of images of children are published and shared online. While we are ignoring children, they are unable to escape online sexual abuse. The data and the tools exist. What's missing is the choice to truly see them.
The scale of the crisis
Behind every report is a real child. The numbers are growing because technology is evolving — AI-generated material, encrypted sharing, cross-border hosting… Abusers adapt fast. EU's legal response needs to catch up.
Does that make you feel uncomfortable?
This discomfort should be a catalyst for action.
Europe must act against
child sexual abuse online
Child sexual abuse and exploitation are taking place every day in the digital environment. Behind every image, video or report is a real child subjected to abuse, trauma and lasting harm.
Data released in 2025 by the Internet Watch Foundation confirm that the threat is growing and changing rapidly. The scale of child sexual abuse material online should alarm every policymaker in Europe. Significant amounts of illegal content continue to be hosted within the borders of the European Union, and technologies such as AI are creating new risks and new forms of abuse.
Technology is evolving fast. Abusers are adapting fast. Europe's legal response needs to catch up.
The EU must adopt strong
legislation now
Children deserve a safe internet. The European Union has a responsibility to ensure that online platforms, services and systems are designed with child protection at their core.
This is why we call for the swift and ambitious adoption of:
EU Child Sexual Abuse Regulation
A long-term framework to regulate online service providers and require them to prevent, detect, report and remove child sexual abuse content online, while improving EU-wide coordination in the response to this crime.
EU Recast Child Sexual Abuse Directive
A modernised set of criminal rules to cover online abuse, extend the reporting period for survivors, define consent, strengthen prevention and improve support for victims and survivors.
The current framework is no longer sufficient to address today's threats. Europe must respond with urgency, ambition and long-term vision.
What you can do?
If you are a policymaker
Help deliver a safer digital environment for children.
If you are a citizen
Your voice matters. Choose to see them, choose to act.
Our key calls on the proposed Regulation Combating Child Sexual Abuse
With this campaign, ECLAG wants to shed light on the stories of thousands of children, and call on European Institutions to act to protect them without any further delay:
With more than 500,000 confirmed child sexual abuse images and videos found by the Internet Watch Foundation in 2025, the child sexual abuse crisis is increasing every minute. We call on institutions to adopt a permanent legal basis for voluntary detection of all forms of abuse in all online spaces.
Reports of realistic AI-generated child sexual abuse imagery have increased by 154% in 2025 compared to the previous year, according to IWF latest data. This stresses the need for a comprehensive framework that addresses all forms of child sexual abuse material: newly created, previously identified, AI-generated and grooming.
To learn more on our key calls on the proposed Regulation Combating Child Sexual Abuse, please refer to our briefing note.
Who we are?
The ECLAG coalition is formed of more than 80 child rights organisations working across the EU to raise awareness of the pressing need to protect children online in our ever-developing digital world. The Steering Group of the coalition comprises ECPAT International, Eurochild, the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), Missing Children Europe, Terre des Hommes Netherlands and Thorn.
The crisis is evolving.
Europe must respond at scale.