Faeser: "54 cases of sexual abuse of children every day"
The number of reported cases of sexual abuse of minors increased significantly in the year 2023. However, the statistics do not provide much information about the actual numbers. The Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) states in the Federal Situation Report on Sexual Crimes that many more cases came to light.
The number of reported cases of sexual abuse of children and adolescents increased in the previous year. However, this alone is not yet an alarming finding, as stated in the Federal Situation Report on Sexual Crimes for the Disadvantage of Children and Adolescents 2023.
Therefore, the police were made aware of 16,375 cases in the previous year where children were sexually abused - an increase of 5.5 percent compared to the previous year. In addition, 1,200 offenses were reported where adolescents were sexually abused. The number of cases involving the representation of child sexual abuse increased 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 in Germany could be identified based on tips, especially from the USA, do not enter the statistics. The reason for investigations that sometimes run into a dead end is the suspension of mandatory data retention of telecommunications traffic data in Germany, especially IP addresses. Images and videos of sexually abused children and adolescents are shared on the internet in thousands.
Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser stated during the presentation: "Every day, 54 children and adolescents are victims of sexual abuse - these are despicable acts that deeply affect us and leave us speechless." It is a central task of the state to look on and act whenever there are threats to children - it is also a central task of society as a whole.
Faeser and the BKA have been advocating for a new legally compliant regulation for the arbitrary storage of traffic and location data of telecommunications for some time. They criticize that some providers no longer store data, making it impossible to access any information for investigations.
However, Federal Justice Minister Marco Buschmann of the FDP and Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz reached an agreement in April on the Quick-Freeze procedure. According to this procedure, data is only stored when there is a significant suspicion of a criminal offense. The agreement within the federal government on this matter is still ongoing. The old regulation for data retention has not been used since 2017 due to legal uncertainties.
Nancy Faeser, the Federal Minister of the Interior, highlighted the alarming statistic of 54 children and adolescents being victims of sexual abuse every day, which she mentioned during the presentation. The BKA has expressed concerns about the large number of international cases involving child sexual abuse, where relevant data retention in Germany, particularly IP addresses, has been suspended, leading to investigations often coming to a dead end.
