( RIA Novosti ) - The Organization for Security and Cooperation (OSCE) in Europe began a two-day conference Thursday devoted to the battle against the sexual exploitation of children on the Internet.
The main objectives of the conference are to demonstrate the latest technology in combating the crime. International experts will deliver presentations on recent case studies as an example of good investigation practice, and representatives from the corporate and private sectors are to discuss the possibilities of building effective partnerships with the criminal justice sector, said the OSCE website.
Figures suggest that child pornography has become a global crisis. It is estimated to be a multi-billion dollar industry worldwide, fuelled by the Internet.
According to data from the U.S. National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, 19% of identified offenders had images of children younger than 3 years of age. 39% of the offenders had images of children younger than 6 and 82% had images of children younger than 12.
Over 100,000 child pornography web sites are estimated to exist on the Internet, according to figures on the OSCE's website.