On 30 October, Greek COFACE member KMOP, together with Save the Children, organised the final seminar of the Child Sexual Abuse Prevention and Education (CSAPE) project “From Awareness to Action – Tackling Child Sexual Abuse in Europe through Prevention and Collaboration” in Brussels.
The project, which brings together partners from Finland, Greece, Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Iceland, aims to prevent child sexual abuse by increasing knowledge on providing sexual education to children and raising awareness on young people who have sexual thoughts towards younger children. As part of the project, the partner organisations conducted a survey to map the attitudes and practices of children and youth concerning their online behaviour, ability to recognise potentially dangerous situations online, and awareness of available reporting and support mechanisms in case of online abuse in their respective countries. Some of the outputs the CSAPE project delivered are a synthesis of the training package for professionals, a brochure for children, a brochure for young people with a sexual interest in children and material for parents.
During the final seminar participants had the opportunity to learn more about the current state, barriers and opportunities of sexual education in Europe, as well as best practices and lessons learned on the topic of young people’s sexual interest in children. Young people from the consortium countries also shared their thoughts on how to prevent sexual abuse and what sexual education should look like. It was mentioned that in some European countries sexual education tools are available, but there is still a taboo in society that needs to be changed. In other countries, sexual education is not part of the school curriculum. However, parents themselves are not always equipped to teach sexual education, which shows how important it is to have it in schools.
Find out more about what COFACE members do in our safer internet policy brief: POLICY BRIEF. Supporting Families in the Digital Era: How to ensure safe and enriching online experiences for children and their Families? | COFACE Families Europe
