In Romania, authorities are facing an increasing wave of child pornography cases, having received over 500,000 reports from the United States alone since 2016, transmitted through international organizations.
The alarming number of notifications, including 50,000–60,000 just last year, highlights the scale of the phenomenon and the need for unified methodologies for investigating and preventing abuses against minors.
The topic was addressed by the Deputy Chief Prosecutor of DIICOT, Claudia-Ionela Curelaru, during an interview held on Thursday at the Ministry of Justice. Curelaru is running for a new term in the same position.
During the interview, she was asked about the necessity of developing integrated methodologies/guidelines for conducting criminal investigations to ensure more efficient handling of certain types of offenses within DIICOT's jurisdiction.
In this context, she mentioned that DIICOT has been dealing with an increasing number of child pornography cases lately and has received a large amount of data from the USA on this phenomenon, thus the need for a unified methodology to analyze the information.
"There is already a methodology in progress at the Cybercrime Fighting Department, which will be helpful in carrying out criminal investigations in cases involving child pornography.
Because we are facing a growing number of cases with this subject.
From 2016 until now, we have received 500,000 NCMEC reports (reports through the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children platform), which represent raw data with child pornographic content.
These NCMEC reports are delivered by non-governmental organizations from the USA and then to countries where this phenomenon is prevalent, through EUROPOL. Just last year, 50,000-60,000 NCMEC reports were delivered in Romania, with 100,000 currently being processed.
These, depending on the identified IPs by the Organized Crime Combat police officers, have been assigned to the organized crime combat services in the territory, and the vast majority of the notifications made by the judicial police officers are based on these materials, which initially are raw," stated Claudia-Ionela Curelaru, as quoted by Agerpres.
The NCMEC platform (National Center for Missing & Exploited Children) represents the most important non-profit organization in the USA, dedicated to finding missing children, reducing child sexual exploitation, and preventing their victimization.
Moreover, in DIICOT's activity report for last year, it is mentioned that there is an increase in child pornography crimes, especially self-production of pornographic materials followed by their distribution, as well as online grooming activities targeting minors on social networks, with the purpose of subjecting them to sexual abuse.
Also, the report indicates that child pornography through computer systems is mainly present through the distribution and exchange of pornographic files, especially through mobile applications (WhatsApp, Instagram, Telegram, Messenger).