Sharing best practices, with international experts, for combating materials that represent sexual abuse of children

The International Center La Strada aims to initiate the conceptualization of a Hotline service - a unique mechanism for reporting child sexual abuse material (CSAM). And tomorrow we will take a first step in this direction, organizing a discussion and networking platform with the participation of international experts, public and private sector institutions.

National background

Since 2014, the Republic of Moldova has been committed to creating and implementing an effective legal framework in preventing and fighting sexual exploitation and sexual abuse of children. One of the actions recommended in this regard by the We Protect Global Alliance, of which our country is a part, is to develop and ensure the functionality of a specialized Hotline service - a service for reporting alleged illegal materials, including child sexual abuse.

The National Action Plan on promoting the safety of children and adolescents on the Internet for the years 2017-2020 provides for some actions in this direction. For example, one of the priorities of this Plan was to reduce illegal content on the Internet and address negative impact behavior in the online environment by developing a mechanism for reporting such content. Unfortunately, such a mechanism has not been developed so far.

Our motivation

The main purpose of tomorrow's event is to raise awareness among the professional community about the urgent need to develop a single platform on which child sexual abuse material (CSAM) can be reported. At the same time, we want to believe that by organizing this event we encourage the sharing of good practices between local and international experts. It is only a first step in our country's commitment to protecting the rights of children from sexual abuse and sexual exploitation. And the fact that we have all the support of INHOPE Foundation, the organization that provides the necessary expertise in the development of Hotline services worldwide, makes us believe that the project has all the chances to be completed.

At the same time thanks to the involvement of INHOPE, at tomorrow's roundtable we will be able to learn from the experience of some of the best international experts what are the most effective forms of cooperation between non-governmental organizations, the private sector, law enforcement and other partners in the field of fighting child sexual abuse online. We invite you to meet them:

Denton HOWARD, Executive Director, INHOPE

Denton Howard has worked with the INHOPE network since 2005 being involved in various operations from network and technology development to outreach and training. By his own confession, he is a hotline evangelist with a mission to combat online child sexual abuse. He has a BA in Business & Marketing from the University of South Wales, and a Postgrad in Computer Science from the National University of Ireland, Maynooth.

 Samantha WOOLFE, INHOPE

Samantha leads the Partnerships and Expansion Department at INHOPE. In 2020 she was involved in various activities of expanding the network of in cooperation with INHOPE’s partners in industry, law enforcement, other civil society organizations, and international institutions. She has sometimes been at meetings with experts in four continents in one week. She is at INHOPE for eight years and fighting for the online safety and protection of children for 15. Samantha has worked at Insafe, European Schoolnet, ICMEC, advised FOSI, promoting digital citizenship and the protection of children from potentially harmful material online. Prior to that she was a lobbyist for Political Intelligence's London office.

 Dr. Victoria Baines

Victoria is an international expert in cyber security and online safety. She has held Visiting Fellowships at the University of Oxford and has lectured on Stanford University’s Trust & Safety Engineering course. Her research is focused on online safety, the future of cybercrime, and the rhetoric of cybersecurity. Dr. Victoria Baines is senior advisor to Disrupting Harm, an EVAC-funded project led by ECPAT, INTERPOL, and UNICEF Innocenti to map the threat from and response to online child sexual exploitation and abuse (OCSEA) in fourteen focus countries. She is also the author of the baseline mapping assessment of responses to OCSEA in Council of Europe member states.

  Elena Savu

Elena is the head of police unit for combating CSAM in Romania. In 2002 she graduated from the University of Bucharest, Faculty of Law. In 2007 she received her master’s degree in International Marketing, Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies. Mrs. Savu has been working in The Central Service for Countering Cybercrime in Bucharest for 17 years and investigating child exploitation by use of computer cases for almost 12 years. As a Chief of the Bureau for the Investigation of Crimes related to Online Child Sexual Exploitation, she has participated in several European and National funded projects, mainly focused on Cybercrime. Coordination, of national and international operations related to OCSE investigations and victim identification activities. Participate in the process of adjustment of the national legal framework related to prevention and prosecution of OCSE cases.

 Andrei Marinescu

Andrei has a bachelor's diploma in political sciences and law. Between 2009 and 2015, he worked as an inspector for the General Directorate for Social Assistance and Child Protection in Bucharest, Romania, and a counsellor on volunteer repatriation for migrants. As of 2015, he has been working as a hotline coordinator for Salvati Copiii (Save the Children).

Peter-Paul Urlaub

Peter-Paul Urlaub is a registered attorney at law. In his most recent legal education at the University of Oldenburg, he specialized in legal aspects in IT. At the hotline of eco - Association of the Internet Industry, Germany he is responsible for internet service providers’ relations, training new staff, technical compliance, and innovation. He has been on the board of INHOPE since 2018 and is currently the treasurer of INHOPE.

Chloe Setter

Chloe Setter is the Head of Policy at WePROTECT Global Alliance and works with the Alliance's 200+ members to improve the response to the growing threat of child sexual exploitation and abuse online. She was formerly the Head of Anti-Trafficking for JK Rowling’s international NGO, Lumos, tackling so-called 'orphanage trafficking' and launching the global #HelpingNotHelping campaign. Prior to this, serving as the Head of Advocacy, Policy & Campaigns at ECPAT UK, Chloe Setter helped to draft child-focused amendments to the country's first Modern Slavery Act. Chloe set up and chaired a dedicated child trafficking group for the UK Government and the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner and is currently a member of the Advisory Boards of the Journal of Modern Slavery and the Tech Coalition's Safe Online Research Fund. She is a fellow of the Vital Voices Global Freedom Exchange and has authored multiple publications.