Toespraak minister Opstelten bij Tweede Internationale Conferentie tegen Seksueel Misbruik van Kinderen Online

Toespraak | 01-10-2014

Ladies and gentlemen. I thank our chair and host, Eric Holder, for organizing this meeting. Our alliance is alive and as relevant as ever. Ms Malmström referred to a notorious Dutch case that took place in Amsterdam, but had links with other places in the world. Indeed, this case demonstrates how important our international cooperation is.

There are other cases in the Netherlands and abroad that show new forms of child sexual abuse. For instance, we’ve seen cases in which suspects – posing as minors – convinced children to undress in front of their webcam. In other cases, sites have been found where people can order and pay for live video feeds of child sexual abuse. The abuse is happening somewhere else, for example in Southeast Asia. I see this as a form of child sex tourism.

Mr Chair, Madam Commissioner, colleagues: what can we do about this?

First, I believe the policy goals we established in 2012 are still valid. I would particularly emphasise the need for a robust, well-trained, dedicated police unit and dedicated prosecutors.

Teams like this have been active in the Netherlands for a few years. And they have gotten results. More and more suspects are being arrested and prosecuted every year. We have achieved a 20 per cent rise in cases referred for prosecution by the police. But more importantly, the teams have been able to focus on the most serious cases and identify and help the victims. This is a priority of mine, and recently I presented a plan to Parliament on how the police and Public Prosecution Service will improve on these results between now and 2018.

Second I would like to add some new actions to our agenda leading up to 2016. We need to take a more systematic approach to disrupting the online methods used by people who extort children and groom them for webcam performing and sexting. Next to this, we need to develop a more coordinated, detailed approach to child sex tourism. Actions would include sharing information on travelling offenders and creating a system for vetting foreign volunteers in children’s shelters and other organisations.

And we should also be working harder to remove obstacles to international police and justice cooperation. We need to share best practices and develop new working methods, for example in the Virtual Global Taskforce and within Europol and Interpol. Next month I will be opening the VGT’s biennial conference in Amsterdam, hosted by the Dutch police. The event will focus on child sex tourism and the rise of live-streamed child abuse material.

Ladies and gentlemen, let us continue our work in this much needed alliance.

Thank you.