European Financial Coalition - Combating the Commercial Distribution of Child Abuse Images

The powers of the European Financial Coalition are the brands behind it."

Jim Gamble QPM, Chief Executive
Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre

Major financial, internet and technology corporations have joined forces with international policing agencies, the European Commission and specialist child protection NGOs to bring a halt to the activities of those who seek to make money from the distribution of child sex abuse images.

It is estimated that there up to 3000 commercial child exploitation or abuse websites in existence - (Internet Watch Foundation, 2007) Led by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre – the UK’s dedicated policing organisation for protecting children from sexual exploitation – and funded by the European Commission, the new European Financial Coalition (EFC) brings together organisations from across all key sectors to track, disrupt and look to help ultimately confiscate commercial gain made by those who deal in the distribution of some of the worst material imaginable.

VISA Europe, MasterCard, Microsoft, PayPal and the NGO Missing Children Europe assisted by Allen & Overy are amongst the founding members and are joined by ICMEC – the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children. On the policing side, Europol are working with officers at the CEOP Centre to deliver European wide policing response supported by the Italian National Police.

Victims in abuse images and getting increasingly younger - (CEOP 2009)The objective of the EFC is to bring together all stakeholder groups engaged in the fight against the commercial distribution of child abuse images in order to facilitate and support pan-European police operations, with cross sector solutions targeting in particular the electronic payment systems that are used to purchase child exploitation and abuse images on the internet.

This will ultimately help to:

The severity of the abuse in images seized has increased significantly Are you involved in the financial sector, work for an organisation that is focused on child protection or represent a police organisation that has experience or is involved in this area of criminality?

To find out more email efc@ceop.gsi.gov.uk.