German Federal Government Publishes Takedown Report on Child Sexual Abuse Material 2023: German Complaints Offices Fulfil Important Function in Reporting, Processing Reports[...]

• Takedown report 2023: German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) receives 54,613 reports on child sexual abuse material
• Annual report of the eco Complaints Office documents successful work in 2023
• CSAM Regulation: Focusing on the principle of "taking down instead of blocking" and taking greater account of the complaints centre network

The German federal government today published the evaluation report on the takedown of child sexual abuse material on the Internet for the year 2023. According to the report, a total of 54,613 external reports of child sexual abuse material were statistically recorded by the German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) in 2023, which represents more than a doubling compared to the previous year.

German complaints offices fulfil an important function in reporting, processing and taking down reports

This year's report also highlights the effective cooperation between the law enforcement agencies and the German complaints offices.

"The current report documents the successful cooperation with the BKA and the important bridging function of German complaint offices as the most important informants. This enables the eco Complaints Office to offer a low-threshold and anonymous reporting of content," says Alexandra Koch-Skiba, Head of the eco Complaints Office.

In 2023, the BKA received 22,503 reports from German complaint offices, a significant increase compared to 7,679 in 2022. In total, 51.3% (2022: 98.8%) of all reports of child sexual abuse material came from these offices. The percentage decrease can be explained by the direct reporting of a German image hoster who was recorded as a "private individual informant".

"Due to the high proportion of reports received by the BKA via the complaints offices, sufficient personnel and technical resources will continue to be required in the future, both on the part of law enforcement and the complaints offices, so that so that even with increasing case numbers, the identification of perpetrators and victims as well as the prosecution and takedown of child sexual abuse material can be achieved effectively and efficiently," says Koch-Skiba.

Annual report of the eco Complaints Office documents successful work: 100% takedown rate for websites hosted in Germany with content classified as child sexual abuse * under criminal law in 1.86 days

The eco Complaints Office's own annual report for the past year recorded 17,493 justified complaints, which presents a new record. Sexual violence and boundary violations against children and young people continued to account for the majority (91%) of complaints received. A total of 60,151 reports related to this topic.

Websites hosted in Germany with depictions of sexual abuse were deleted 100.0% of the time and within an average of approximately 1.86 days. Worldwide, such content was removed in approximately 6 days with an overall success rate of 98.35 per cent. This means that availability times actually fell in 2023 compared to the previous year, which underlines the importance of the work of the complaints offices and the functionality of the principle of "takedown instead of blocking".

CSAM Regulation: Focus on the principle of "take down instead of block" and recognise the role of the complaints body network

The EU Commission's proposal for a regulation on preventing and combatting child sexual abuse (CSAM Regulation for short) continues to be the subject of much debate and significant criticism.

"We need a strong political commitment to the existing complaint office structures at national and international level. The complaints offices of eco, FSM and jugendschutz.net in Germany as well as the international complaints offices of the INHOPE network are important points of contact for reporting abuse depictions. This bridging function must not be jeopardised by new regulatory initiatives. We are convinced that taking down instead of blocking is the most effective way to combat illegal Internet content. The current European regulatory initiatives should support this approach and better incorporate existing structures and cooperations," says Koch-Skiba.

About the eco Complaints Offices:

The eco Complaints Office has been working for over 25 years according to an approach based on voluntary self-regulation by providers and the commitment of Internet users. From the very beginning, eco has cooperated with law enforcement agencies in the fight against child sexual abuse and other illegal Internet content. If desired, a report can also be made anonymously to the eco Complaints Office and is therefore often used by people who have reservations to contact the police directly.

The success statistics and further information on all areas of work of the eco Complaints Office can be found in the current Annual Report 2023.

Further information about the eco Complaints Office can be found at: beschwerdestelle.eco.de.

This "terminus technicus" from the legal text is used exclusively to differentiate between individual offences in the area of sexual violence and border violations against minors. It is used when it comes to depictions of abuse of children under Section 184b StGB of the German Criminal Code. This does not imply endorsement of the terminology still embedded in criminal law.

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