Our fight!

“Sexual violence is not an epi-phenomenon,

but a scourge that reveals public health”

-

Homayra Sellier

Child sexual abuse is one of the last taboos of humanity, yet we know that any child, with any social, economic, geographic or religious background can fall victim to a predator within the family circle, at school, in a sports club, or on social networks.

Of course, it is more comfortable to ignore this pledge, it is more comfortable to look the other way, but we are transformed by what we accept; this scourge needs to be faced with new eyes; courage, and love, for the sake of our children, our grandchildren and a future that we all share with over a hundred million survivors of sexual abuse, we all live on the same planet; our futures are interwoven.

Our motto:

 When we change the way we look at things, the things we look at change.

One day a man was walking along the beach when he noticed a boy picking something up and gently throwing it into the sea.

Approaching the boy, he asked, “What are you doing?”

The boy replied, “Throwing starfish back into the ocean. The tide is going out & they are stranded. If I don't throw them back, they will die”.

“Son”, the man said, “don't you realize there are miles and miles of beach and hundreds of starfish? Why bother? The few you manage to save; out of so many cannot possibly make a difference!” 

After listening politely, the boy bent down, picked up another starfish, and threw it purposefully back into the sea. Then, smiling at the man, he said: “It will make a difference to that one”; to that one, it is his life.

Sexual abuse is a public health issue

Like a widespread disease, it impacts everyone – individuals, communities, businesses, and society as a whole.

"A childhood disease that strikes one in four girls and one in ten boys before the age of 18"

–

Finkelhor & Dziuba-Leatheman, 1994

Facts and figures

• In Europe, 1 in 5 is the name of the Council of Europe’s campaign. Available data suggests that 1 in 5 children in Europe are victims of some form of sexual violence.
• 30% of sexual abuse is never reported.
• 75% of victims know their abuser.
• 95% of sexual abuse is preventable through education.
• A typical pedophile will commit 117 sexual crimes in a lifetime.
• Over 80% of teenagers use a mobile device regularly.
• 40% of teenagers report chatting with strangers on the internet regularly.
• Over 9.3 million people sought help with cyberbullying and online safety in 2016.
• The figure released by the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) is a 35% increase in child abuse images posted online. (30 million reports of suspected online child abuse).
• 800’000 potential perpetrators are constantly online.

Key figures and trends include

• Severity up. Category A content, which includes the rape and sexual torture of children, is up by 5%, from 28% of all content to 33%.
• Disguised website abuse in unprecedented increase. An 86% rise in the use of disguised websites, implicates increased intelligence among offenders, going to new lengths to evade detection.
• Europe worst offender for hosting. Europe now hosts 65% of all confirmed child sexual abuse imagery. 
• Website brands. The number of child sexual abuse website brands rose by 112%.
• Cyber child porn tourism is on the increase. This practice consists of paying individuals, mainly from Southeast Asian countries and in vulnerable situations, to film live sexual acts involving children.
• Artificial intelligence creates new threats. The first child pornography content generated by an AI was reported in October 2023. The vast majority of these contents are generated from photos of actual children. The growth rate of these technologies is challenging the legislative abilities of our societies.
• "Deepfakes": This technology can manipulate videos and photos to include people who were not originally present in them. Photos of children are at risk of being used to generate child porn material. 

In Switzerland 

• Child pornography is the 2nd category of cybercrime most reported to the authorities. Anyone can anonymously report such material via the FedPol website.
• 1 in 7 children suffers sexual violence. However, only an average of 1,300 cases are reported to the authorities each year.
• The consumption of child pornography material and sexual abuse of minors account for 48% of all sexual crimes committed each year. 
• The use of child pornography is rising steadily. It has more than doubled in just four years.

Impact of Sexual Abuse

• Those who experienced childhood sexual abuse are one and a half times more likely to report serious health problems physically, emotionally, and psychologically. Abuse can permanently affect all parts of the survivor’s life.
• The economic burden of child abuse is estimated by the European Commission to be 4% of the GDP per country per year much higher than the cost to prevent it.