ECPAT Sverige joins Canadian Centre for Child Protection in Project Arachnid

This week, the Agenda 2030 for Children: End Violence Solutions Summit is being held in Stockholm. Different actors from a number of countries will meet to discuss and showcase solutions to end violence against children. This also marks the beginning of a new partnership between ECPAT Sweden and the Canadian Centre for Child Protection (C3P). ECPAT Sweden's has been running its hotline since 2006 and it will be the first in Europe to connect with Project Arachnid to combat the growing proliferation of child sexual abuse material on the Internet.

Project Arachnid is an automated crawler developed by C3P, which helps reduce the online availability of child sexual abuse material and break the cycle of abuse. Project Arachnid has to date processed over 41 billion files and 1,1 billion web pages. As a result, 80,000 unique images requiring analyst review are found every month. Notices relating to the most egregious of these images are then sent to providers.

The need for Project Arachnid was based upon the growing proliferation of child sexual abuse material and was further validated by the Canadian Centre's International Survivors' Survey. All participants had their child sexual abuse recorded and 61% believed the recordings had been distributed online. Almost 70% of the survivors also worried about being recognized.

Similar research has been undertaken by Swedish foundation Barnafrid who suggest that psychosocial trauma becomes greater when sexual abuse is recorded and shared online. Project Arachnid uses technology to counter the years of misuse by offenders and help end the cycle of abuse, offering psychological relief to survivors who have had no control over the ongoing sharing of their abuse.

"Now more than ever, we need to be working in collaboration to address the harm facing the survivors of this unique crime. Project Arachnid is an important global solution for reducing the availability of this material and we are thrilled to working with ECPAT Sweden to better support victims of this crime. We all have a responsibility to these victims and this type of international collaboration is essential." - Lianna McDonald, Executive Director, Canadian Centre for Child Protection

Project Arachnid entails collaboration between C3P, Canadian Police (RCMP), and Interpol. In addition to participation from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) out of the United States, ECPAT Sweden now becomes the first organization in Europe to join the project and integrate the system into its ongoing operation.

"Arachnid is a great step up for us in terms of making a difference for those who have been sexually exploited, where images are shared on the internet. Again, we find that international collaboration is key for making any kind of progress" - Thomas Andersson, Senior Adviser, ECPAT Sweden.

ECPAT Sweden's Hotline is a member of umbrella organization INHOPE since 2014, which cooperates with Interpol. Technological development facilitates production, storing and sharing of child sexual abuse material online and presents and increasingly difficult challenge.

"Getting the opportunity to join this great project is a testament to the great work our colleagues are doing in terms of running the hotline but it also illustrates the need for greater and targeted investment in to combat child sexual abuse material. Arachnid is a solution with tremendous potential which we are happy to become a part of" - Anders L. Pettersson, Executive Director at ECPAT Sweden.

For more information please contact

ECPAT Sweden: Emma Edwall, +46 72-389 56 50

Canadian Centre for Child Protection, +1 204-945-8074 or communications@protectchildren.ca