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 EPCAT International

ECPAT International will conduct a comprehensive analysis of the existing research, legislation, policy, and systems addressing online child sexual exploitation and abuse in the 14 project countries. They will also collect relevant data through in-depth interviews with senior duty-bearers and governments; deliver face to face surveys with national welfare staff; interview caregivers, parents and justice stakeholders to assess the access to justice in each country; gather information from national hotlines and helplines; engage with the organisations operating in the tech and digital space; and interview survivors of sexual abuse and exploitation. 

ECPAT International is a global network of 121 child rights organisations across more than 100 countries. Since the 1990s, ECPAT has worked to end all forms of sexual exploitation of children; through prostitution; trafficking; child, early and forced marriage, online and in the context of travel and tourism. The ECPAT International Secretariat is based in Bangkok, Thailand, and advocates for stronger legal protection of children; raise awareness about the issue; partners with the private sector to prevent their services from being misused to harm children; conducts research to better understand the crime, and create space for children to access their rights.  

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