Our 2024 priorities

WeProtect Global Alliance – Media

January 29, 2024

A message from our Executive Director

Last year, our fourth Global Threat Assessment revealed an 87% increase in reported Child Sexual Abuse Material cases since 2019, with over 32 million reports globally. This growth represents an ongoing crisis for children and young people who are at risk of harm. The need for a coordinated, multi-faceted response to protect the world’s children from this escalating threat has never been more urgent.

New threats and challenges mean we need to remain ahead of the curve. This year started with the sombre news UK police were investigating an alleged rape in the metaverse, after a child’s avatar was attacked in a virtual reality game by several adult men. Legislation and policy gaps mean there are very real issues to grapple with, as well as the role of safety by design and regulation. It is also a reminder of why we do what we do: ensure children can safely take advantage of the benefits and opportunities of the digital world. We can and will prevent the exploitation and abuse of children online.

I believe the year ahead is full of promise and opportunity as we work together to turn the tide on abuse. This year, the Alliance will sharpen our focus on the threats and issues identified in our Global Threat Assessment. Public health and child-centred approaches, alongside Safety by Design principles, are critical to preventing abuse and a key priority will be how we can build preventative responses across all sectors.

We will continue to support knowledge building and collaboration through roundtables, webinars, events and other activities, exploring threats such as AI-generated abuse, financial sexual extortion, and abuse in online gaming and eXtended Reality environments. Following feedback from our recent membership survey, we are particularly keen to look at how we can work more with underrepresented regions and better leverage expertise and networking opportunities across our membership.

Later this year, we will publish two briefings on child sexual exploitation and abuse in faith-based and sporting institutions. With other partners, we will be helping to shape a review of language and terminology in the Luxembourg Guidelines, and we will continue to support all sectors to implement the Alliance’s Model National Response.

Pivotal to our work will be ongoing engagement with children, survivors and parents, ensuring their views, perspectives and voices are heard and positively influence legislation, policy and practice. To support our members to embed participation by children and survivors in their work, this year we will launch further tools and host a roundtable with leading experts in this sector. We will continue to amplify the voices of survivors and push for child-centred approaches to be embedded in practice across government, civil society, the private sector and law enforcement.

In the build-up to our next Global Summit, we will be putting in place foundations for an impactful and engaging event. Watch out for more details and how you can be involved soon.

And finally, we would love to hear from you, our members, about the great work you are doing. Sharing good practice is a powerful way for us to build momentum, knowledge and support collaboration and networking. Our Communications and Engagement team will be reaching out to you soon!

I look forward to working with you over the next 12 months and am confident of the global impact our Alliance of more than 270 members can have by working together collectively.

Iain Drennan headshot 1

Iain Drennan
Executive Director, WeProtect Global Alliance