Childlight - Global Child Safety Institute

🔦 Childlight would like to thank all those we have worked with this year. 🤲 Together we can create a safer future for children everywhere. ✨ Wishing you a peaceful holiday season.

🍏 You can now also listen to Childlight's podcasts on Apple as well as Spotify. 🎧 In the first episode, the Childlight team discuss why the sexual exploitation and abuse of children must be treated as a global public health emergency. 🚨 Our next episode will arrive in January 2025! https://lnkd.in/eZfWyt5p

I am delighted to see the establishment of Childlight - Global Child Safety Institute East Asia Pacific Hub UNSW, led by Michael Salter and a talented team of individuals from across the child protection sector. We will be held accountable by an exceptional, experienced and committed board to deliver on our mission to safeguard children across the world from sexual exploitation and abuse. It is a global health pandemic and needs to be treated as such - in every country, growing exponentially and requires a global response. It can be prevented and treated - 300 million children affected last year alone. Children can’t wait and nor will we. Please support us - we can be much more effective by working in collaboration. 🙏

🚨 The publication today of Ofcom codes of practice and guidance marks the start of new duties for tech firms to help keep children and young people safe online in the UK. 🔦 The exploitation and abuse of children online has become a pandemic. Our research found 21% of respondents in Western Europe, including the UK, had experienced online solicitation during childhood. 💻 Safeguards are urgently needed. #onlinesafety #publichealth #publichealthemergency

🚨 We welcome the European Council's proposals to toughen EU criminal law rules on child sexual exploitation and abuse. The revised rules, released today (Friday, December 13th), propose to: 🇪🇺 expand the definition of CSEA offences to ensure all forms, including those facilitated by AI, are criminalised, 🇪🇺 toughen sentencing, 🇪🇺 create an obligation for member states to collect improved CSEA data. 📊 The move to improve data collection is particularly welcomed by Childlight. Currently, data on CSEA across Europe is patchy and incomplete making analysis difficult. Poor data impacts on effective safeguarding of young people and the creation of evidence-based policy. 🔦 Improved data leads to better protection for children and young people and will help create a safer future both online and offline. https://lnkd.in/e7MzW7zB

🔦 Current affairs programme Scotland Tonight revealed Childlight's latest estimates on the scale of online child sexual abuse in Scotland. 🔺 An estimated 150,000 Scots children are experiencing online sexual abuse annually, amounting to an average of more than 400 cases every day. 🔺 However, only 2,055 cases of online child sexual exploitation and abuse were reported to police between April 2003 and March 2024. 🔺 More than 76,000 men in Scotland are estimated to be offending against children online. Our CEO Paul Stanfield and Director of Data Professor Deborah Fry discussed why official figures for OCSEA are just the tip of the iceberg with our estimates 70X higher. The programme featured powerful contributions from survivors, the NSPCC, and The Lucy Faithful Foundation. You can watch the programme again by clicking the link 👇 📈 Our research was produced as part of a project funded by the Scottish Institute for Policing Research and the Human Dignity Foundation. The collaboration focuses on how to build successful academic-policing data partnerships. #publichealth #childprotection https://lnkd.in/eHVnmQVj

🔦 New figures from Childlight estimate the scale of online sexual abuse in Scotland is more than 70 times higher than official figures. 🔺 An estimated 150,000 Scots children are experiencing online sexual abuse annually, amounting to an average of more than 400 cases every day. 🔺 However, only 2,055 cases of online child sexual exploitation and abuse were reported to police between April 2003 and March 2024. 🔺 More than 76,000 men in Scotland are estimated to be offending against children online. Professor Deborah Fry says often children don't feel able to reveal what has happened to them so official figures are "just the tip of the iceberg". 🚨 This is a pandemic we can't police our way out of. The research was produced as part of a project funded by the Scottish Institute for Policing Research and the Human Dignity Foundation. The collaboration focuses on how to build successful academic-policing data partnerships. 📈 The estimates for Scotland drew on Childlight's 'Into the Light' global index, which examines the prevalence of online child sexual exploitation and abuse. https://lnkd.in/dpQP3W5K

🔦 Landmark new research from the Childlight team has revealed failure to address child marriage is costing Nigeria $10billion and more than 40,000 lives a year. The study, which was funded by UNICEF, is the first to estimate the economic burden of child marriage in Nigeria. Published in the journal Child Abuse and Neglect the study calculates the severe economic and societal costs of marriage under the age of 18. Researchers found: 🔺 In 2019 nearly 40,000 children under the age of 5 died because their mothers were child brides. 🔺 In the same year an estimated, 3,489 girls died from pregnancy and childbirth resulting from child marriage. 🔺 Child marriage decreases a girl's likelihood of completing secondary or higher education by 23% 🔺 Earnings for women who married in childhood are 12% lower than they could have been without child marriage. The research estimates the aggregate economic burden of child marriage on Nigerian society as $ 10.87 billion annually, representing 2.43% of the country's GDP. Welcoming the research Nigerian charity the Child Solidarity Group have called for a review of child rights legislation in the country. Chief Executive Emediong Akpabio said: "We urge the government to set a legislative process in motion to review the current Child Rights Act which was passed in 2003 and 20 years later, only managed to receive the domestication of 34 states. Reviewing this act would allow for new legislative provisions capable of addressing emerging threats against children that are not only facilitated by harmful cultural practices but also technology." https://lnkd.in/eTyBAYz9

🚨 We urgently need child protection experts with advanced data skills if we're to tackle the global pandemic of child abuse. 📈 Our MSc in Child Protection Data Futures, based at Edinburgh Futures Institute, is a world-first. The course will provide the skills and knowledge to help graduates turn data into action. 🤝 Help create a safer future for children and young people. #masters #dataskills #childprotection #edinburghuniversity #graduate https://lnkd.in/eB8R_sZx

🌍 Speaking at the WeProtect Global Alliance summit in Abu Dhabi, Lydia Davenport of Childlight’s Technical Advisory Programme has spoken of some of the work we’re supporting in Africa around building law enforcement capability to tackle child sexual exploitation and abuse. ⚡ We act as a catalyst for change by bringing the right people together to access and act upon intelligence because children can’t wait. 👮 In Kenya it’s very encouraging to see the growth of the Anti-Human Trafficking and Child Protection Unit (AHTCPU) which has so far rescued and safeguarded over 1,400 children. Childlight staff were involved in conceptualising the unit, and assisted with the case against a youth football coach who was abusing young boys and was recently given a life sentence by a court in Kilifi. 🤝 It’s an example of how international collaboration can bring offenders to justice – just as we hope a global coming together can now also help deliver global restitution and compensation for survivors ⏭️ Ultimately, we'd like to support the creation of an African centre of excellence based in Kenya as a focal point to develop law enforcement capability in dealing with online and offline CSEA and as a research centre – so we can put data at the heart of what is a huge issue in Africa and all over the world. To find out more please get in touch.