Collaborating to combat child sexual exploitation – an international challenge

“When everyone involved is committed to the cause, the chances of success increase significantly. It’s a field where the shared dedication to protecting children often overrides other barriers.”

Protecting children from online abuse and exploitation requires a coordinated international effort – one that transcends borders, disciplines, and sectors.

Recently, we sat down with Cecilia Wallin to learn more about the need for international collaboration. As a founding partner of Onemi-Global Solutions and a seasoned expert – with nearly two decades of experience in law enforcement and international child protection – Cecilia has dedicated her career to combatting child sexual exploitation.

Read on to hear her expert insights on the importance of cross-collaboration in this critical field, the challenges investigators face, and how to build a path forward: one that’s a safer world for children.

Why is cross-collaboration between different organisations essential in tackling online child exploitation?

The first thing to understand is that collaboration isn't just important—it's absolutely essential. Tackling online child exploitation is impossible without it. This kind of abuse is inherently international, with images and videos often being shared across borders, accessed globally, and involving offenders and victims who may be in different countries.

For instance, when law enforcement in one country is trying to identify a child whose images have been circulated worldwide, they can't do it alone. They need cooperation from other countries to make any real progress. Once a victim is identified, we need to collaborate with a wide range of partners to provide victims with the support they need.

Different organisations bring unique strengths to this mission. That might be different law enforcement teams actively investigating imagery, the tech companies developing tools to help them, or child protection agencies committed to safeguarding victims.

By working together, we can ensure that our joint efforts are as effective as possible, that they can make a true difference to those who need it, and that they can find and prosecute those responsible.

How can we ensure that collaboration efforts are effective?

Making collaboration effective is tough, especially with all the international hurdles involved.

You can have clear communication, defined roles, and set goals. But even then, success isn't a given. Investigators face some significant challenges. Differences in international law, varying priorities between countries, and the vastness of the internet all make our task a difficult one, not to mention emerging threats like AI child sexual abuse material.

However, in my experience working in victim identification, I've seen that people in this field are driven, committed, and passionate about our shared goal. That drive makes international collaboration easier. When everyone involved is committed to the cause, the chances of success increase significantly. It’s a field where the shared dedication to protecting children often overrides other barriers.

What steps can be taken to build and maintain an international network of specialists focused on child safety?

The most important step in building an international network of specialists is getting connected to the International Child Sexual Exploitation (ICSE) database hosted by INTERPOL. It's such an important tool that helps users avoid duplicating their efforts, and I would say that it’s absolutely essential for anyone working in this area.

It’s the main resource that links experts worldwide, allowing them to share information and collaborate effectively.

There are plans as well to expand the database so that it includes not just investigators, but also researchers and analysts. That’ll make it even more valuable.

For other collaboration opportunities, I’d really recommend attending conferences and user summits. There are so many hosted all over the world by various organisations and law enforcement agencies, which focus on bringing together experts from different fields and giving them the chance to share knowledge and work on solutions.

How do you engage with experts from diverse fields and regions? What about collaborating with governments and other policy-making bodies?

Collaboration can take many forms—sometimes it’s digital, with experts sharing insights online, and other times it’s face-to-face at conferences or specialised meetings. In my work, especially in victim identification, collaboration often means reaching out to experts in various fields who can contribute to the complex task of identifying victims.

This could involve linguists who understand regional dialects, software specialists who can analyse digital footprints, or cultural experts who can provide context that might not be immediately obvious.

Governments can also make a significant impact. They can pass much-needed legislation, facilitate international information sharing, and offer post-safeguarding assistance to victims. They can also provide technical resources such as internet connectivity, and crucially, specialised units with trained investigators.

Could you give us an example?

One example that really stands out in my career is Operation Blackwrist in 2017, which was based in Bangkok. We were analysing videos of abuse, trying to gather any clues that could lead us to the victims or perpetrators.

We hit several major roadblocks; for over a year, we couldn’t identify the location of the abuse, or the language spoken in the videos, despite all agencies involved in the operation. We sought input from experts around the world, from linguists to regional specialists, but we kept coming up short. It was incredibly frustrating to see the boys growing up without being able to help them. It wasn’t until the offender was arrested that we discovered the language wasn’t a human language at all—it was a language used to train elephants.

What really led to the identification and arrests in this operation was regular police investigation combined with victim identification methodologies and OSINT, with the most crucial part being the cross-border collaboration. This offender alone abused 12 boy victims in a small village, filmed it and shared it on his website with 63,000 unique users worldwide.

Without the combined efforts of international and interdisciplinary experts, we never would have uncovered the vital pieces of information which were key to moving the operation forward. This experience really highlighted for me the power of collaboration and how essential it is in our fight to protect vulnerable children.

Can you share any other success stories where collaborative efforts have made a significant difference?

One particularly significant case I worked on involved a child modelling site in the Czech Republic. A Swedish customer had requested more exploitative images of several child models from the site’s photographer. We also knew that this Swedish individual was selling the material to others around the globe.

To address this issue, we formed a joint investigation team (JIT) that included representatives from Sweden, Spain, the Czech Republic, and EUROPOL, known as Operation ATELIER. Each country contributed vital resources and expertise. Throughout the investigation, we observed some communication between the targets, but we were unable to access the actual material.

During a coordinated arrest in the Czech Republic, Sweden, and Spain, we discovered that the photographer did not possess the images and videos he had sold to the Swedish customer. The Swedish target had all his hard drives encrypted, while the Spanish target had his hard drives open and accessible, with all abusive images and videos neatly organised in folders. Combining this evidence with chat logs from Swedish surveillance and emails from Czech surveillance, we were able to build strong cases in all three countries.

Without this cross-border collaboration, securing convictions and protecting the children would have been impossible. Each country’s contribution was essential, serving as a powerful reminder of how effective international cooperation can be in tackling such complex crimes.

What were the main outcomes of this case?

In the Czech Republic alone, over 100 victims were identified. They were interviewed shortly before the arrests and were largely unaware that they had their own websites and names circulating on the internet.

Most of these children came from impoverished backgrounds, and their parents were often oblivious to what was happening in the studio. The photographer never showed them the photos intended for the Swedish target.

This operation also led to the identification and arrest of several other photographers from Russia, Kazakhstan, and Canada, who were involved in producing and distributing child sexual exploitation material (CSEM) to the Swedish target, resulting in the identification and rescue of their victims.

Customers from around the world were also identified and arrested.

What are some of the biggest obstacles you've encountered in your global efforts?

Legislation is undoubtedly one of the biggest obstacles we face, particularly when it comes to privacy laws that can prevent the sharing of critical information needed to protect children. Different countries have their legal frameworks and priorities, which makes it incredibly difficult to achieve a uniform approach to combatting child exploitation. We might have clear evidence of abuse occurring in one country, but if their laws don’t allow us to take action or if they don’t prioritise the case, our hands are tied, and those children remain at risk.

Another significant challenge is the difficulty in getting timely feedback from other countries. I vividly recall my time at INTERPOL, where we sent hundreds of cases to a country, fully aware that children were being exploited there. However, receiving any kind of response or feedback was incredibly challenging. This lack of communication can seriously hinder our efforts to protect victims and bring offenders to justice.

Without cooperation and timely information-sharing, it’s much harder to build effective cases and ensure that the abusers are held accountable.

What message would you like to send to readers about the importance of child safety and the role they can play?

If there’s one thing that I’d like to stress, it’s the absolute necessity of collaboration. If we don’t collaborate, we can’t do anything; but if we do collaborate, anything’s possible. “It takes a network to defeat a network” is a common saying in our industry, and for good reason. Whether it’s law enforcement, tech developers, policymakers, or members of the public, we all have a role to play.

I firmly believe that, by working together, we can identify those who need safeguarding the most and bring offenders to justice. Every effort counts, and the more we unite in this cause, the stronger we become.

Dedicated to driving positive change

With a wide range of challenges to overcome, and new emerging threats to consider, the power of a united, international network cannot be overstated.

By fostering collaboration, leveraging technology, and ensuring clear communication, we can make significant strides in protecting the most vulnerable among us. To learn more about Onemi-Global Solutions, and to discover how they’re helping guide international efforts and drive innovative solutions, head over to their site today.