European Commission Establishes Network for Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse

The Network for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse was established as an official expert group of the European Commission on 29 July 2025. The Network will support the development of effective, evidence-based preventive intervention programs or measures aimed at children and their environment to reduce the likelihood that a child becomes a victim, as well as at offenders and persons who fear that they might offend, to reduce the likelihood that such persons offend. The Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, together with the Directorate General for Migration and Home Affairs and experts in the field, have been collaborating on the development of an EU platform providing access to research, data, and guidance on preventing and combating child sexual abuse. Evaluation of perpetration programs show overall promising results in preventing child sexual abuse and exploitation.

Prevention programmes that equip children with knowledge of boundary violations, or that offer therapeutic intervention to potential offenders, operate upstream of harm but cannot intercept an offender already in contact with a target child. As a Meta Business Partner, Guardii closes the operational gap between primary prevention and post-disclosure intervention by detecting threat patterns in direct-message conversations as they unfold: sustained targeting, escalation from compliments to requests, the use of coercion or inducement. The anti-grooming module surfaces a child under predatory pressure to a parent, school or professional in real time, blocking or flagging hostile contact before it reaches the target and enabling emergency escalation to the appropriate authority, addressing harm at the point of greatest leverage rather than waiting for a child to recognise, resist and report.