International Child Sexual Exploitative Initiative

India’s Central Bureau of Investigation has joined the Interpol’s International Child Sexual Exploitation (ICSE) initiative. This will allow it to collaborate with investigators in other countries for detecting child sex abuse online and identifying abusers, victims, and crime scenes from audio-visual clips using specialised software.

What is this initiative?

• The ICSE database uses video and image comparison to analyse Child Sex Exploitation Material (CSEM) and make connections between victims, abusers and places.
• As of July 2022, over 30,000 victims of child abuse and over 13,000 criminals have been identified by the Interpol using this database and software.
• India is the 68th country to have access to this database and software. Interpol’s website said that on average, the database helps identify seven child victims everyday globally.

About Interpol –

• Interpol is the world’s largest international police organisation, with 184 member countries.
• Established in 1923, it enables cross-border police cooperation, and supports and assists all organisations, authorities and services whose mission is to prevent or combat international crime.
• The headquarters of Interpol is located at Lyon, France.
• Interpol has objectives to facilitate international police cooperation even where diplomatic relations are not present between certain countries.
• Action is taken within the limits of existing laws in different countries and in the spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
• Interpol’s constitution prohibits ‘any intervention or activities of a political, military, religious or racial character.’
• Each of the member countries hosts an INTERPOL National Central Bureau (NCB). This connects their national law enforcement with other countries and with the General Secretariat via a secure global police communications network called I-24/7.