Swiss anti-paedophile hotline reports on first year of activities

Sharing and distribution of online child pornography has seen an increase, particularly during the pandemic © Keystone

During its first year of operations, a Swiss child pornography alert system has registered 411 reports – more than one notification per day.

Sharing and distribution of online child pornography has seen an increase, particularly during the pandemic. In 2022, to combat child pornography and similar cybercrimes against minors, Switzerland launched the clickandstop.ch hotline to allow people to report content anonymously and to provide information and advice to the public.

+ Swiss anti-paedophile strategy slammed by child protection agency

The clickandstop.ch project has seen fewer reports than many similar international platforms, said Yvonne Feri, President of the Swiss Foundation of the Protection of Children. But she says the alert system is functioning well and expects more reports to be made with the increase in illegal material online.

However, the child protection agency has concerns. Notifications are currently handled by cantons, some of which struggle to handle large numbers of notifications. The Swiss Foundation of the Protection of Children would like to see notifications and investigations being handled by the federal authorities.

+ Police accused of ignoring online paedophiles

There are ongoing discussions on improving the fight with cybercrimes against minors.

European Union member states, for example, have agreed on a draft regulation on cross border access to electronic evidence. This will “make it possible for the relevant authorities to address judicial orders for electronic evidence directly to service providers in another member state” writes the European Council.

In Switzerland, further policy initiatives calling for expanding the national strategy on cybercrimes against minors are being proposed. “There is never enough that can be done in this area,” said Feri.

Online criminal activity against minors has increased in Switzerland in the last few years.