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4.2.3 Implementation
Conclusions and recommendations
4.2.3.1 General
On a practical level, the complexity of the phenomenon of child pornography, and the variety of forms
that it is able to take, present considerable challenges for the implementation of measures for the prevention
and combating of child pornography. This report set out to examine the status of the issue in
terms of the constituent processes that can be distinguished from one another in this connection. These
processes include prevention, registration and identification, detection, prosecution and trial, aftercare
and supervision of offenders, and the provision of assistance to victims. The ways in which these
processes are implemented have been investigated and analysed, encompassing various programmes
that are underway and are directed towards perpetrators and victims of domestic violence, child abuse,
sexual health and sexual violence. From this analysis it has emerged that in practice, little attention is
devoted to aspects related specifically to child pornography, such as digital forms of sexual violence
against children and the inter-relatedness of the online and offline worlds of offenders and victims. The
situation with regard to the repressive implementation processes, such as detection, prosecution and
trial and probation and after-care, in which Article 240b of the Dutch Criminal Code is, of course, the
guiding principle for the actors, is a different one. However, even in these processes, the connection
between online and offline sexual violence can sometimes be incomplete.
As child pornography takes place within the wider context of sexual violence against children, and due
to the fact that the practical implementation of the relevant approach is, in many cases, not specifically
directed towards child pornography, a considerable part of this process involves the implementation of
programmes against sexual violence, with no specific context that relates to child pornography.
For interventions in the digital domain, the government is, in part, dependent on collaborations with
private parties. Bearing this is mind, the extent to which public-private sector partnerships have been
taking shape has been investigated.
Finally, the investigation also focused on the extent to which connections have been formed between
and within the processes where this is necessary, and on the issue of whether or not links exist between
policy and implementation, with which policy can be translated into practice and vice versa. Many of
the problem areas found in the processes of implementation seem to be related to the complexity of the
phenomenon and the fragmentation in terms of policy.
4.2.3.2 Prevention
The prevention of child pornography is evidently closely related to the prevention of sexual abuse of
children. After all, material constituting child pornography cannot (usually) be produced without the
sexual abuse of children having taken place. Potential perpetrators and victims therefore would appear
to form the most obvious target groups of measures designed to prevent the sexual abuse of children.
However, as the sexual abuse of children takes place within, and is influenced by, specific situational and
social contexts, amongst other things, the literature takes a broader approach as a basis for the prevention
of sexual abuse of children. This approach gives rise to four target groups for the implementation
of preventative measures: perpetrators, victims, situations and communities. Primary prevention aims
to prevent individuals from becoming perpetrators or victims by means of general provision of information,
and the raising of awareness among these target groups as a whole. This type of preventive
measure is geared towards each of the four target groups as a whole. By contrast, secondary prevention is
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