🙏Thanks to @titodemorais.bsky.social & Cristiane Miranda for another great event, their warm welcomes & placing🇵🇹as an important player on children's digital rights! It was great to see Kai Fidalgo again & learn from @johncarr1912.bsky.social as always.

#OnlineSafety #AgeAssurance #CapacityBuilding

💡Learning about the 🇵🇹&🇮🇹 police's approaches to prevention & awareness raising amongst children & adults
💡The wide range of tech company representatives who showed up & engaged
💡The great presentation from Dr Sylwander on her & Digital Futures for Children centre's important work in the field

My highlights from the event – apart from it being in Lisbon: there are worse places to be in!
💡The panel on 🇵🇹 & 🇪🇺policy approaches, in which we heard from researchers and national representatives from the EU Commission and regulators ANACOM & ERC

🇵🇹 This event was great for many reasons, but especially to engage with both Portuguese and international experts on the topic. In a time when social media bans are being considered and implemented, it was good to get that platform to discuss with people bringing in different opinions!

💌 If you want to learn more about what we do, and know how you can support our work, click here: icmec.org/giving-tuesd...

#ChildProtection #OnlineSafety #CapacityBuilding

🙌For me, some highlights were the successful closure of the ALUNA project, our Roundtables in 🇫🇷&🇵🇹, and engaging with passionate people at the #VictimSupportEurope Annual Conference or the #BEiNG-WISE Technical Joint Meeting. + of course, continuing to work alongside my amazing colleagues at
#ICMEC.

💡Stay tuned to read more about Morocco's institutional, legal & technical frameworks to prevent and respond to online child sexual exploitation & abuse (OCSEA)!

#OnlineSafety #ChildProtection #CapacityBuilding

I've been working in the field for a few years & the report still surprised me. The inclusion of quotes from survivors is a powerful reminder that we are not just talking about data but real people.

We will reference this study for a long time. If you haven't yet, please take the time to read it!

It was a pleasure to lead the Q&A & learn from experts who shared their experiences, concerns & solutions. TY to them & to all the participants who contributed. TY to the US Dept of State for funding this 🌍 project of 50 Roundtables to combat child sex abuse.

#OnlineSafety #CapacityBuilding

✅Tech-driven defense: A.Surleraux (Google) showed mitigation measures & tools showing how AI can be used for triage, content id & defense against deepfakes.
✅Policy & support: effective policy & increased public resources are 🔑. A.Meyniel (ICMEC) highlighted the need for sustained efforts from NGOs.

The path forward:
✅Crucial international partnerships: the necessity of global intelligence-sharing was emphasized by the US Embassy Paris & FBI representatives, underscoring the vital cooperation with French forces.

👇

Challenges are huge:
⚠️Criminals use AI: A.Boudin @police-nationale.bsky.social "AI is+beneficial to criminals than to investigators", used to create abusive content like "undressing" kids.
⚠️High psy toll: S.Comblez, e-Enfance "AI doesn’t just steal the victim's images; it steals their confidence."

🙏 Thank you to them all & to the entire WG3 led by Francesco Pompedda! And of course, to the entire ImpleMendez COST chaired by Professor Dave Walsh, with a special thanks to Hannah Cassidy to facilitate the online connection :)

#ChildInterviewing #ChildMemory #CapacityBuilding

I learnt a HUGE deal from my colleagues who research the topic, incl. academic studies they conducted, + important framing around the capacities & limitations of memory.

👉 e.g.: check out Szojka et al., 2024 journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

💡With Zsofia Szojka, Hanna Lahtinen & Lorraine Boran, I formed part of the Children Memory working group. We developed a workshop to teach professionals about the particularities of memory across ages, suggestibility, & how to approach interviewing when the child might be victim/witness.

👇

🌐TY to all who reached out to make concrete progress in wireless tech & children's safety online. Excited to see where this will lead us!
Special thanks to Dr. Valeria Loscri for the invite, Prof Guzzo for the well organised event, & the entire CA for the warm welcome.

@costprogramme.bsky.social

🎯The goal was to present a case study - tech used to abuse children & tech-for-good - to tech & legal experts, to discuss gaps & solutions that we can developed together. We also learned about Dr Soldino Garmendia's study on criminological profiles of OCSEA offenders investigated by 🇪🇸 LEAs.