WeProtect Global Alliance
Making the digital world safer for children
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The internet and the digital world can be a force for good, enabling children around the world to discover, play, learn, and connect. But with online child sexual abuse escalating, it can also be a place of danger.
Working with WeProtect Global Alliance, we are at the forefront of enabling a coordinated, global response. Our experts deliver the research and analysis that underpins the Alliance’s Global Threat Assessment (GTA). This biennial report aims to activate a global community of stakeholders, including government, tech companies, and regulators, to develop an informed and influential response.
Since 2018, when we helped coordinate the first GTA, this community has grown to almost 300 organisations, creating a powerful international force to make the digital world safer for children everywhere.
Setting the global agenda on preventing child sexual exploitation and abuse online
Child sexual exploitation and abuse online is growing. In 2023, the US National Center for Missing & Exploited Children analysed over 36 million reports of child sexual exploitation and abuse online from across the globe.1 This figure represents an increase of 87 percent over three years. For the children and young people who experience sexual exploitation and abuse online, the harm will often last a lifetime.
WeProtect Global Alliance provides a focus for worldwide efforts to address the threat to children, generating political commitment and practical approaches to keep children safe. The Alliance’s members include governments, major technology companies, civil society organisations, intergovernmental organisations, and law enforcement agencies such as Interpol, the US Department of Justice, and the UK’s National Crime Agency.
Working together for a safer society
We’ve been working with the Alliance for over a decade, providing support as it has evolved from its roots in UK, US, and European governments to become an independent, international organisation. Since 2018, we have been instrumental in establishing the Alliance’s Global Threat Assessment (GTA) as a comprehensive examination of the scale and nature of child sexual exploitation and abuse online globally. The GTA has become a key driver of public policy in this space.
Our Global Threat Assessment is our flagship policy document. It creates a vital platform for international leaders to talk about the issues surrounding child sexual exploitation and abuse online and to coordinate a response to this global threat.”
Reaching out to our network of global connections
Our work on the GTA is informed by our long experience helping make the digital world safer for all users. Over the past decade, we have collaborated with UK and international governments, regulators, law enforcement agencies, the technology industry, and third-sector partners to improve online safety.
For the GTA research, our unique blend of expertise, technology insights, and access to a global network means we have access to credible and authoritative points of contact in international governments, law enforcement agencies, and academia. This has brought fresh cultural perspectives to our analysis and provided unique access to international research projects, case studies, and national threat assessments.
Since the first GTA in 2018, we’ve broadened the scope of the research so that it delivers an assessment both of the current threat and of emerging trends. It now also includes recommendations aligned to WeProtect’s best practice model national response framework that governments and other stakeholders can use to sharpen and co-ordinate their efforts. The most recent iteration gives fresh weight to the child’s perspective and focuses on practical strategies for stopping child sexual exploitation and abuse online at source.
Building an international force to keep children safer online
The impact of the GTA can be measured in part by the size of the community it has inspired. Members of WeProtect now include over 100 government organisations, more than 70 private-sector companies, more than 110 civil society organisations, and ten intergovernmental organisations.
In just ten years, WeProtect Global Alliance has become an international force, putting the spotlight on one of the world’s urgent issues. We’re proud of what we’ve been able to do to help the organisation make technology a force for good instead of a tool for evil. We’re looking forward to helping the Alliance take its next strides in the fight against child sexual exploitation and abuse online.”
PA’s status as a world leader in online safety research adds credibility and weight to our efforts to drive action on this global issue. PA’s long-standing support has helped us ensure that the threat from child sexual exploitation and abuse online does not fall off the radar and is treated with the urgency it deserves.”
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