State Police. National Day for the fight against pedophilia

"Pedophilia is a constant threat to the integrity of children and young people that today goes beyond the real world and also spreads online. On the National Day for the fight against pedophilia, the State Police reaffirms its commitment, above all repressive, in the protection of the little victims of an aberrant and shameful crime. "

Says the Director of the Postal and Communications Police Service, Ivano Gabrielli. "What happened in the last two years due to the pandemic emergency, has accelerated the processes of rapprochement between children and the internet, has intensified the relationship of mutual attraction that already existed between adolescence and online social network services and has influenced the daily habits of everyone. us, by imposing an ever closer relationship with the virtual world, but just as quickly showing its dark side. " Gabrielli continues.

In fact, a worrying trend is reconfirmed for which pedophilia becomes an imminent danger even for younger children: increases of 38% in 2021 in the number of children under 13, involved in cases of child pornography and solicitation, affirm as social networks, video games and messaging can be a great opportunity for growth but also a danger to which the utmost attention should be paid.

Those who criminally exploit the network to hide themselves, to feed their deviant fantasies know how close the relationship is between young victims and technological devices: in 2021, 5613 cases were handled by the National Center for the Fight against online child pornography of the Service Postal and Communications Police, (CNCPO), with a significant increase in cases compared to 2020 (3243), cases in which families and victims were forced to deal with the manipulative capacity of aware adults, with the illegal circulation of images of violence, with the sharing in apparently anonymous circuits, on darknets, of confessions of facts of abuse. As evidence of the worsening of the threat against childhood and adolescence online, the number of subjects investigated for child pornography and solicitation crimes reported to the Judicial Authority is growing, which in 2021 were 1282 with an increase of 8% compared to 2020. In the first quarter of 2022, however, the situation seems to be further worrying as the number of arrested people increases by 50% compared to 2021.

Gabrielli continues witnessing a trend: "Unfortunately, it is sad to see that, in the last year, more and more often the analysis of child pornography images and the investigative activities carried out throughout the national territory, with the coordination of the CNCPO, make it possible to save small victims, the object of real sexual abuse perpetrated. by subjects belonging to their circle of trust. This is a fact that reaffirms the operational commitment that the Postal and Communications Police express daily and also declares the concrete growing danger of those who use the network for soliciting and child pornography purposes. The complexity of this threat requires continuous efforts to adapt and a constant synergy, both with collateral foreign police bodies and with the world of active associations for the protection of minors, from a system perspective in which prevention integrates repressive work that the operators of the Postal and Communications Police carry out every day with great diligence and commitment. "

State Police. National Day for the fight against pedophilia