Kerstin Claus, the Independent Commissioner for Issues of Sexual Child Abuse, described the latest figures on child abuse and youth pornography within the police crime statistics as “alarming”. Speaking to the media group Bayern newspapers, Claus stated that the most recent data revealed that the sexual abuse of minors remains a massive societal problem. She highlighted the scope of the issue as “frightening” pointing to 17,126 cases, which represents a 4.7 percent increase. Of particular concern was the sharp rise in instances related to youth pornography, showing an increase of 19.9 percent-nearly 2,000 additional cases compared to the previous year. Claus emphasized that the protection of young people online urgently needs to be strengthened. She also cautioned that when analyzing the data, it must be noted that the young people found distributing pornographic content are often so-called self-filmers. Furthermore, Claus pointed out a devastating flaw: she warned of a significant investigatory gap looming due to the European Parliament’s decision to halt platform providers’ filtering of abusive depictions. According to her, this move risks leaving children and youth with even less protection rather than stopping abusers. During the press conference on the police crime statistics, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) also labeled the expiration of the interim regulation as a mistake, appealing to the European Parliament to reconsider its decision. Claus called upon the federal government to act more decisively. She urged for an immediate, binding, and permanent European-wide legal regulation within the CSA ordinance, one that establishes a secure legal basis for discovering and removing abusive depictions. Consequently, she appealed to the federal government and to German members of the European Parliament to re-evaluate this decision in its content. She concluded by stating that under the concept of “chat control” they are effectively accepting the suffering of thousands of children and young people.
Child Abuse Statistics Shocking Beauftragte Calls Data Terrifying
