The site jedisstop.be was officially launched on Thursday by the Foreign Affairs Minister Didier Reynders and the group STOP, which fights to protect children. The aim of this new tool is to make reporting cases of sexual exploitation of children easier. The site offers five courses of action to those who want to help: reporting, intervening, making a witness statement to police, offering support, and relaying information. “Reporting is protecting”, says Ariane Couvreur from STOP. “Without people reporting cases, it’s difficult for police authorities to find and keep tabs on perpetrators of child sex abuse committed abroad, and so protect the victims”.
“Numerous factors can make many children susceptible to being abused: poverty due to the economic crisis, migration that affects a lot of children, war, corruption that means laws are not respected, etc”, explains Ms Couvreur. “The tourism explosion means more and more destinations are available and the development of modern technologies makes identifying the perpetrators more complicated”.
“The new site is a another sign that Belgium is committed to fighting the sexual exploitation of children, ten years after the first information campaign by STOP”, Mr Reynders commented.
The site launched on Thursday is linked to the European platform reportsextourism.eu. The STOP group, which reminds people that 1,8 million children are exploited every year all over the world, is made up of the police, the Foreign Affairs ministry, the Defense ministry, the Justice department, the tourist department , Plan Belgique and Child Focus.
(Source: Belga)
