“54 cases of child sexual abuse every day”

Faeser: “54 cases of sexual abuse of children every day”

The number of reported cases of sexual abuse of minors rose significantly in 2023. However, the statistics provide little information about the actual numbers. The Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) states in its federal report on sexual crime that significantly more cases have come to light.

The number of reported cases of sexual abuse of children and young people has increased in the past year. However, this alone is not a worrying finding, as stated in the Federal Situation Report on Sexual Offenses Against Children and Young People 2023.

Last year, 16,375 cases of child sexual abuse were reported to the police – an increase of 5.5 percent compared to the previous year. In addition, 1,200 crimes were reported in which young people were sexually abused. The number of cases depicting child sexual abuse rose by 7.4 percent to around 45,000 cases.

The Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) also points out that the large number of cases in which no potential crime scene could be identified in Germany due to information, particularly from the USA, are not included in the statistics. The reason for the investigations sometimes reaching a dead end is the lifting of the mandatory retention of telecommunications traffic data in Germany, particularly IP addresses. Images and videos of sexually abused children and young people are shared in their thousands on the Internet.

Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser stated at the event: “Every day, 54 children and young people become victims of sexual abuse – these are abhorrent acts that deeply affect us and leave us speechless.” It is a central task of the state to look out for and intervene when children are at risk – and at the same time a central task for society as a whole.

Faeser and the BKA have long been calling for a new regulation of the arbitrary storage of telecommunications traffic and location data in line with the law. They criticize the fact that some providers no longer store the data at all and thus no information can be retrieved for investigations.

However, Federal Justice Minister Marco Buschmann (FDP) and Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz agreed on the quick freeze procedure in April. According to this, data is only stored if there is a significant suspicion of a crime. Agreement on this within the federal government is still pending. The old regulation on data retention has not been applied since 2017 due to legal uncertainties.

In her speech, Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser pointed to the alarming number of 54 children and young people who become victims of sexual abuse every day. The BKA expressed concern about the large number of international cases of child sexual abuse in which the corresponding data retention in Germany, especially of IP addresses, was suspended, which meant that investigations often reached a dead end.

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