Child Focus, the Belgian organisation for missing and sexually exploited children, is sounding the alarm. Last year saw another sharp rise in the number of cases of minors going missing and of cases of sexual exploitation reported to it. "The demand for help is so great that we can no longer keep up," Child Focus notes. It is urgently seeking fresh structural funding from the government as the organisation claims it has too few resources to deal with all cases.
The number of requests for help from Child Focus has increased sharply. "Last year we saw a gigantic increase," director Heidi De Pauw says. "2023 was a record year in terms of disappearances and sexual exploitation. We are talking about an increase of 32 per cent compared to 2022."
Among disappearances, young people running away from home stand out in particular. The number of cases of runaways almost doubled since 2019.
The number of unaccompanied refugee minors disappearing is also sharply higher. Their number has almost tripled in the past five years.
At the same time, the number of files on sexual exploitation is also strongly up compared to five years ago:
Attacks on minors’ sexual integrity: more than doubled.
Transgressive sexting, the sending of unsolicited sexually explicit messages and photos: up almost 80 per cent.
Grooming, an adult contacting minors online and inciting them to engage in sexual acts: up by over a quarter.
Sextortion, extortion by threatening to distribute compromising images online: more than a threefold increase.
Prostitution of minors: up by half.
Images of sexual abuse: up over 70 per cent.