United in the fight against paedophile crime

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) is one of fedpol's most important partners in the fight against paedophile crime. Private individuals and Internet providers can report paedophile crime to this non-profit U.S. organisation. If there is a Swiss connection, NCMEC forwards the suspicious activity reports to fedpol.

In 2022, fedpol received 12,737 NCMEC reports. This is 5,561 more than in the previous year. There are several possible explanations for the increase. For example, providers have become better at detecting criminal content, especially using artificial intelligence. In addition, many areas of life have increasingly shifted to the digital space, which in turn leads to an increase in digital content. Furthermore, there are many more images and videos in circulation that children and young people produce and send of themselves. Members of these age groups are sometimes unaware that they could be committing a criminal offence and of the potential for abuse. The cantons take this into account in individual cases.

After receiving the reports, fedpol checks whether an offence may have been committed under Swiss law and makes the necessary enquiries. If there is a need for action, fedpol forwards the cases to the cantons. fedpol’s reports serve the cantonal police as a basis for further investigations and the opening of criminal proceedings against the perpetrators. In 2022, fedpol forwarded 2,055 reports, which is also a sharp increase over the previous year.

The number of NCMEC reports is expected to continue to increase in 2023. In order to cope with this increase, fedpol is continuously adapting the way it works, be it through the exchange of best practices at an international level or by continually developing its tools and processes.