Enhancing law enforcement’s ability to fight online child sexual abuse
Although the EU and its Member States work closely together to fight online child sexual abuse, cases of online child sexual abuse material (CSAM) continue to increase. In fact, according to Europol figures, there were 684 instances of CSAM in 2022, with 60 investigations leading to 30 arrests and the protection of 40 victims. “International and European law enforcement agencies (LEAs) are overwhelmed with the ever-increasing number of CSAM cases,” says Peter Leškovský, senior researcher in intelligent security video analytics at Vicomtech. To safeguard victims, prosecute offenders and limit the spread of CSAM, what LEAs need are a set of next-generation, technology-driven tools – which is exactly what the EU-funded GRACE project set out to provide. “We developed cutting-edge tools and a new IT environment to help LEAs prioritise new cases and enhance their analytic ability to investigate – and close – these cases,” adds Leškovský, who served as the project’s coordinator.
Tools to support law enforcement agencies
At the heart of the project is an innovative CSAM analysis platform that researchers built from scratch. The platform features a practical case management system, robust and secure data storage, versatile case prioritisation and search capabilities, and efficient referral cross-matching and knowledge mining. The platform also includes a wide array of analytical tools. One of those tools is a semantic model that harmonises LEA terminology, processes, entities and relations. “Integrated with analytical results, this tool provides users with a unique and unified data model that governs the knowledge management and analysis processes,” explains Leškovský. Other key tools include a semi-automated annotation framework that can generate the ground truth data needed to perform continuous model adjustments. The project also introduced a federated learning framework that helps harness the collective model adaptation efforts of independent organisations while ensuring advanced security and privacy conditions. In total, the project evaluated over 20 state-of-the-art technologies and approaches in an operational setting. “These evaluations focused on assessing their readiness to analyse new, not yet identified CSAM and their effectiveness in supporting investigation procedures,” remarks Leškovský. The GRACE platform is already being leveraged by Europol and LEAs in eight Member States.
Best practices, policies and guidelines for CSAM
In addition to the aforementioned technologies, the GRACE project contributed to the development of a number of best practices, policies and guidelines. This includes an annotation scheme for image and text CSAM classification, which was agreed to by LEAs from across Member States. Furthermore, the project helped create guidelines geared towards supporting those first responders involved in CSAM-related cases. Researchers also conducted a thorough examination of ethical and legal instruments available internationally and regionally.
Giving visibility to the need to fight online child exploitation material
The GRACE project succeeded at demonstrating a diverse array of analytic tools for prioritising and investigating CSAM. “Thanks to our work, Europol and LEAs had the opportunity to explore cutting-edge approaches, models and technologies capable of enhancing the analysis and processing of vast amounts of CSAM data,” says Leškovský. The project’s partners continue to refine its technological solutions and look to make them readily available to the LEA community. But perhaps the biggest beneficiaries of the project’s work are the victims. “The fight against CSAM is a noble cause, and our work gives visibility to the increasing need for protecting our children, especially in online environments,” concludes Leškovský.
Keywords
GRACE, law enforcement agencies, online child sexual abuse, child sexual abuse material, Europol, child exploitation material