Sexual abuse: digital space plays a central role

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The "Bundeslagebild Sexualdelikte zum Nachteil von Kindern und Jugendlichen" (Federal Report on Sexual Offenses against Children and Adolescents) paints a harsh picture: providers do far too little, and children and adolescents are not only victims but also – often unconsciously – become perpetrators themselves. In addition to long-known dangers to the sexual self-determination of children and young people, new dangers are emerging, especially in the digital space. The Minister of the Interior and the BKA are hoping for new powers.

In the 2024 incidents of abuse recorded by the police, the authorities counted 16,354 acts involving children as victims and 1191 involving young people. As a rule, these are cases of continued and multiple abuse. The majority of these acts that have become known at all take place in the immediate environment of those affected.

Today, digital images are regularly created or the internet is used as a means of committing crimes, said Federal Minister of the Interior Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) at today's presentation of the federal crime report in Berlin. For example, cybergrooming and live streaming of sexual abuse, which is currently taking place primarily in the Philippines, with German perpetrators in second place worldwide.

Hope for data retention

Dobrindt was therefore satisfied that the three-month IP data retention agreed by the coalition would come into effect. "We cannot achieve detection if we lack the technical possibilities, in this case the legal possibilities," said the CSU politician. The draft law for this is to be finalized shortly, but the SPD-led Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection is responsible for this.

The President of the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), Holger Münch, also hopes that IP data retention with port allocation will have an effect. "This will significantly increase the success of our investigations", said Münch. 75 percent of leads currently lead to the identification of suspects, and he expects a rate of 95 percent with a three-month IP allocation retention obligation. BKA officials are already overwhelmed by many reports of allegedly criminal depictions of children and young people.

In particular, the number of automated reports that reach the Federal Criminal Police Office via the National Center for Exploited and Missing Children (NCMEC) is very high. Many of the major US platform operators report suspected cases via this center. The BKA can only work with some reports: Of 205,000, just over half were criminally relevant under German law in 2024; ultimately, the BKA forwarded cases to the relevant state authorities 16,000 times from these, Münch reported.

BKA database could improve with AI

The Federal Criminal Police Office in Wiesbaden maintains a hash database in which known accounts of abuse are stored. This means that a psychologically stressful examination by officers no longer has to take place in every case. However, Münch is hoping for further technical assistance from artificial intelligence to be able to better identify similarities even in the case of deviating hash values – and for new legal powers to use such methods.

One of the biggest annoyances of recent years was defused by the traffic light government in 2024: sexual depictions of children and young people are so-called possession offenses. After the 2021 tightening of Section 184b of the Criminal Code, forwarding from chats to teachers or other trusted people or between young people and children had upgraded such cases to crimes. This was corrected in 2024. However, possession is still not exempt from punishment in such cases.

40 percent of suspects in the area of child and youth pornography are children or adolescents themselves, according to the federal crime report. The group of "self-filmmakers" who share such content "out of curiosity, peer pressure or the desire for social recognition" also plays a role here, according to Federal Criminal Police Office President Holger Münch. The BKA is trying to raise awareness with campaigns such as "#dontsendit".

Federal Commissioner calls for more provider engagement

Kerstin Claus, the Independent Federal Commissioner against Sexual Abuse of Children and Adolescents, is hoping for significantly more provider activity. She called for smartphone providers to do much more for the safety of children on the Internet. For example, they should use pre-installed filter mechanisms to ensure that nude photos and films cannot be sent in children's mode in the first place.

Claus also believes that other providers have a duty: "Gaming platforms and their chats are a daily scene." Comprehensive age verification is therefore needed. Children's right to participate in the digital world should not be played off against their right to protection.

Calls for safe spaces for children and young people were also echoed by the Minister of the Interior and the President of the BKA. In this context, Dobrindt once again referred to ongoing debates in Brussels, where the CSA Regulation is being discussed at EU level. The exact position that Germany will take on the CSA regulation in the future still appears to be unclear –, particularly regarding secure messengers.

(nie)