Eighteen child victims of sexual abuse have been identified in a major international operation, Europol said on Friday.
The operation determined the location of 147 victims and identified five offenders.
It was carried out as part of the 19th Victim Identification Task Force, which brought together experts from 28 countries in The Hague, the Netherlands, from 7 to 18 September.
The initiative is designed to strengthen the global fight against the sexual abuse of minors. Specialists examine data, photographs and videos and combine them with contextual information to identify both victims and perpetrators.
In addition to identifying 18 previously unknown victims, the operation established the whereabouts of 147 victims and identified five offenders. In many cases, investigators were also able to determine the country where the abuse had taken place, helping to move related inquiries forward.
Europol, the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation, has organised the Victim Identification Task Force twice a year since 2014.
Since then, a total of 1,260 victims have been identified, 348 offenders arrested, 8,642 image sequences analysed and 2,608 actionable leads passed on to other law enforcement agencies for further investigation.
In 2025 alone, the operation helped identify more than 100 child abuse victims, who were then brought to safety. Most were girls, and the youngest was nine years old, according to an expert involved in the operation.
