Disrupting Harm is a large-scale data collection and research project to better understand online child sexual exploitation and abuse across the world. This study is assessing the scale, nature and context of this issue in 14 countries across Southern and Eastern Africa and Southeast Asia. Supported by the Fund, three grantee partners will work together to conduct the study, including ECPAT International, INTERPOL and the UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti. UNICEF’s role is o conduct nationally-representative household surveys with approximately 1,000 children and 1,000 of their parents/caregivers in each of the 14 partner countries, together with UNICEF Country Offices.

Learn more about Disrupting Harm by visiting the project’s dedicated webpage.

The role of INTERPOL

The Disrupting Harm project is being led by INTERPOL’s Crimes Against Children Unit, which works to identify and rescue young victims of sexual abuse; block access to child sexual abuse material; and prevent sex offenders from travelling abroad to escape justice or abuse children. In this project, INTERPOL will use its expertise and networks to better understand how technology facilitates the sexual abuse and exploitation of children. Their assessment will be built on data from law enforcement agencies, non-governmental organisations and the digital and online industry. INTERPOL will also conduct a needs analysis of the capacity of law enforcement agencies to counter online child sexual exploitation and abuse in each country.

INTERPOL is the International Criminal Police Organization. As an inter-governmental organization, its role is to assist law enforcement agencies across its 194 member countries to combat all forms of transnational crime. The Organization maintains global databases containing police information on criminals and crime, and provides operational and forensic support, analysis services and training. 

For more information, read the disrupting harm project brief in English. The project brief is also available in the following languages:

Khmer   Vietnamese  Bahasa Indonesia      Thai Portuguese