Over 60 percent of Europe's child sex abuse material stored in the Netherlands: study

The Netherlands is responsible for storing over 60 percent of all European child sexual abuse material, according to a new study by Terres des Hommes and the Childlight Global Child Safety Institute at the University of Edinburgh. Nearly a third of all the child sex abuse footage in the world is stored in the Netherlands, Hart van Nederland reported.

In the study, the two organizations refer to “child sexual abuse material” instead of “child pornography.” This concerns all photos, images, and videos depicting children engaged in sexual acts or in a sexualized manner.

With their word choice, the organizations want to make it clear that this involves material of children being abused. According to the organizations, the word pornography may imply that the acts are consensual. Children cannot give consent for sexual acts.

With the parliamentary elections approaching, the organizations urged Dutch politicians to urgently intervene, calling child sex abuse an “emergency that is destroying the lives of millions of children worldwide.”