Protecting children from sex abuse

Awareness on sexual exploitation and abuse of children has risen and the issue has started to be given the serious attention it deserves. Our courts too seem to be taking cases of sexual exploitation and abuse of children more seriously, although not as much as I would have thought.

The increase in awareness was in part triggered by the advent of the internet, which brought with it new risks and new ways in which children could be exploited or abused.

A few days ago a commendable initiative was launched in Malta, known as BeSmartOnline, to fight different kinds of online child abuse. During the launch, a police inspector rightly noted internet abuse cases are reaching the police when they are already too messy.

One way of avoiding things getting messy in the first place is to review the law to make sure it sends a clear message to potential abusers that their crimes will not be tolerated.

Children are vulnerable because they are not able to protect themselves. Child abuse therefore strikes at the physical and mental health of children marking them for life. Consequently, it is our duty to step in and provide them with all the necessary legal protection. At the European Parliament we are working precisely on this task.

The EU has proposed a new law to prevent and prosecute all forms of child sexual abuse and exploitation and offences involving child pornography.

The law will establish a common European law to prevent these crimes and to protect the victims in all EU countries.

At the European Parliament’s Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee we voted on this draft law just last week approving it at committee stage with an overwhelming majority. I am proud to be supporting this law.

The law introduces a number of specific measures I would like to briefly outline just to give you an idea of what we want to do:

First, we want to single out abuse by persons in a position of authority, trust or influence within the family who abuse of children because it makes their exploitation even more repulsive.

Second, it proposes tougher punishments for those who commit an offence against children with a physical or mental disability.

Third, it bans “grooming”, which is the practice of befriending children and gaining trust for the purposes of tricking and luring them into sexual abuse.

Fourth, it allows employers recruiting staff for work with children to obtain information from the authorities on their criminal records and convictions for offences connected with children.

Fifth, it provides that offenders may be temporarily or permanently prevented from exercising professional activities involving direct and regular contact with children and volunteer activities related to the supervision or care of children.

Sixth, it makes specific provision to punish criminal offences against children committed abroad by EU citizens. This is aimed at fighting sex tourism.

Seventh, we included measures to fight child pornography on the internet.

Each time someone downloads and retains child pornography images and materials it is like that child is being abused again. It is therefore our strong wish to ensure that child pornography or child abuse material available on the internet be removed at source in all EU countries. Where this is not possible, due to sites being hosted outside the EU, member state authorities may block the material in line with their national laws. This was a particularly tricky issue because there is no consensus on blocking of sites.

Eighth, provision is made to guarantee the protection of victims, including help and support during investigations, proceedings and during the subsequent stages, with the children’s opinions, needs and fears being taken into account. Moreover, the legal-system itself must also be made more child-friendly.

These are just some of the issues included in the draft legislation that has just been adopted at committee stage last week. This draft will now go to the European Parliament’s plenary and, subsequently, also has to be approved by the member states in the Council of Ministers.

This is the first time the EU is adopting a holistic legislative approach in fighting sexual exploitation and abuse of children both in the real as well as in the virtual world. This is thanks to new powers the EU was given in the Lisbon Treaty.

However, this is only a part of the protection measures that need to be made available in the best interests of children. And there is a lot of sense in the EU getting involved here because of the human rights instruments it has at its disposal and because of the cross-border nature of sexual exploitation and abuse.

Indeed, just last week, the European Commission published a communication on the rights of the child. I will come back to this important document next week.

www.simonbusuttil.eu

Dr Busuttil is a Nationalist member of the European Parliament.