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<strong>Child</strong> PornograPhy First report oF the Dutch NatioNal rapporteur
the same year, the AMKs launched more than 400 206 investigations into sexual abuse. 207 Unfortunately,
further information in relation to the advice, consultations and reports of sexual abuse is not available
from the youth care organisation Jeugdzorg Nederland. 208 When they receive reports of sexual abuse, the
AMKs do not record whether images of this abuse potentially exist. This means there are no statistics
relating to child abuse material in this regard. However, images of sexual abuse add a further dimension
to victimisation 209 that should be a focus of attention and that should have implications with regard to
the care to be provided. 210 This aspect has been the subject of research conducted in Germany.
Care and Treatment of <strong>Child</strong>-Victims of <strong>Child</strong> Pornographic Exploitation (CPE) in Germany 211
From October 2004 to September 2007, the ‘Innocence in Danger’ organisation conducted research
into the treatment of victims of child pornography in Germany. All care organisations in Germany
that specialise in assisting children who are victims of sexual abuse were contacted within the
context of the research. One of the conclusions of the research was that due to uncertainty and a
significant lack of knowledge, care workers fail to address the issue of images in cases of sexual
abuse, so it is likely that many victims of child pornography remain unnoticed. Despite this, care
workers recognise that victims of sexual abuse who also feature in images that have been made of
them are traumatised even further, and required specific care in relation to this.
Anyone who is responsible for children’s welfare (in a professional capacity) must have knowledge of
their living environment. Today, minors make frequent use of the Internet and experiment online with
regard to aspects of sex and relationships. There are risks associated with behaviour of a sexual nature
online, and these risks can increase the likelihood of sexual abuse. For this reason, it is important that
‘digital indicators’ 212 , including those of child pornography, are noticed by AMK staff. BNRM conducted
an exploratory investigation in order to find out the extent to which child pornography, and more
broadly speaking, ‘digital indicators’, lie within the field of vision of the staff of AMKs. The results of
this exploratory investigation will be outlined next. Please refer to Appendix 2 for an explanation of the
investigation.
Results of the exploratory investigation of AMKs
When cases of sexual abuse are reported, it is not standard practice for staff of <strong>Child</strong> Abuse Counselling
and Reporting Centres (AMKs) to ask whether images were also made of the abuse. A number of AMKs
206 This equates to 2.45% of 16,574 (MOGroep Jeugdzorg, 2010).
207 Whether or not in combination with a different form of child abuse (MOgroep Jeugdzorg, 2010).
208 Further information is only available in relation to the total number of occasions on which advice
was dispensed, consultations and reports (such as the number of children who formed the subject of
reports (a single report may, after all, concern several children), the children’s age, gender and domestic
situation etc.) (MOgroep Jeugdzorg, 2010).
209 See §3.7.
210 For that matter, as yet there are no care services in the Netherlands that are specifically specialised in
this additional dimension of victimisation, see §3.7.
211 Von Weiler et al., 2010. For further results of this study, see §3.7.3.
212 These could include: abnormal sexual behaviour by the child in chatrooms, on social networking sites,
in front of a webcam or material of a sexual nature produced by the child him/herself (sexting, see
§1.4.3 for further information).