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Protecting the children from abuse and paedophilia in the Internet

The fact that sexual crimes against minors are shrouded in secrecy in the great majority by the guilty silence of the adults and the scared silence of the victims keeps the enormous dimension of this problem in the dark.

Although up to now the number of children who are missing or abused or commercially and sexually exploited was mainly related to reasons of social prejudice, lack of education and basic training as well as the position of the child in the family and the society, according to the estimates of the pertinent institutions, currently, this number is permanently increasing, mainly due to poverty and the belligerent conflicts which create enormous immigration waves, as well as due to the galloping spread of the Internet.

Since this multidimensional and complicated problem is no longer limited to the narrow frame of certain social groups, but it has rather got universal dimensions, its confrontation has become exceptionally difficult and requires cross-country collaboration:

  • The groups of people –perpetrators and victims– involved in it come from different cultures, moving from country to country as well as in the cyberspace, a fact which allows the involvement of global circuits.
  • The lack of the modernisation of the persecutory authorities does not allow easy access to the criminal circuits, nor their immediate location.
  • Most of the criminals remain unpunished due to insufficient legislation.
  • The limited information available to parents and generally the public on the extent of the problem and the ways in which the criminal circuits act, as well as on the ways with which each one of us could help to confront the problem, impede the awakening, vigilance and active action of the citizens.

Global mobilisation is specifically required to confront paedophilia in the Internet, where over 40.000 child-pornography websites have already been located as well as sites-traps through which cunning paedophiles seek to seduce children in order to abuse them sexually.

The awakening and activation of the governmental mechanisms, mass media and the citizens are essential as well as the role of the non governmental organisations is fundamental.

The “Foundation for the Child and the Family” actively participates in the international campaign for the protection of children. It is the official representative of the “European Office for Missing and Exploited Children” in Greece and collaborates with UNESCO in the international programme “Innocence in Danger”. It, further, collaborates with the “Fondation pour l'Enfance”, which was founded by its President, Ms Anne-Aymone Giscard d'Estaing and the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (ICMEC), two non governmental organisations which the first operates in France and the second internationally towards locating the missing children and protecting the abused children.

In order to achieve its goals, ICMEC has established national centres which collaborate with lawyers, prosecutors, judges, policemen, governmental and non governmental organisations. At the same time, it proposes law enforcement on the protection of children and strict punishment of the perpetrators; it organises international campaigns for the sensitisation of the common opinion and creates programmes for effectively protecting children.

Prominent personalities from all over the world participate in ICMEC. Queen Silvia of Sweden, Queen Paola of the Belgians, the former First Lady of the United States of America, Ms Laura Bush, the First Lady of Russia, Ms Lyudmila Putin, the First Lady of the Arab Republic of Egypt, Ms Suzanne Mubarak, Ms Margarida Barroso, wife of the President of the European Commission, the former First Lady of the Republic of France, Ms Bernadette Chirac, the former First Lady of the United Mexican States, Ms Marta Sahagún de Fox, the former First Lady of the Republic of Poland, Ms Jolanta Kwasniewska, Ms Valentina Matvienko, Governor of Saint-Petersburg and Ms Susanna Agnelli form the Honorary Board of ICMEC today. The President of the “Foundation for the Child and the Family”, Ms Marianna V. Vardinoyannis is a member of the Board of Directors of the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (ICMEC).

In the frame of its action, aiming at the protection of innocence in danger, the “Foundation for the Child and the Family” has organised the meeting entitled "Priority for the dignity and safety of children in Europe", the European Conference "Sexual Abuse of Children and Paedophilia on the Internet" as well as the 2nd European Meeting of Legal Practitioners on issues concerning the underaged. The 1st European Meeting of Legal Practitioners on issues concerning the underaged was realised in Paris with the initiative of the “Fondation pour l'Enfance” in which the “Foundation for the Child and the Family” also participated. Furthermore, the President of the “Foundation for the Child and the Family”, Ms Marianna V. Vardinoyannis is a member of the Board of Directors of the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (ICMEC) and participates in the “International Campaign for children protection” organised by ICMEC.