Visa Europe has today renewed its commitment to support the work of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) – the UK’s dedicated policing organisation for protecting children from sexual exploitation.
CEOP is one of the most prominent child protection agencies in the world and since its inception in 2006, CEOP has been credited with breaking up or disrupting 166 paedophile networks, and saving 350 children from abuse. As a founding partner, Visa has provided financial backing and access to a global network of senior experts in fraud, compliance and legal, and financial payment systems to assist in CEOP’s ground-breaking work.
CEOP leads the European Financial Coalition (EFC), which brings together organisations from across all key sectors to track, disrupt criminal activity and identify individuals involved in the distribution of abusive material (www.ceop.police.uk/efc).
Visa’s support over the next two years will focus around two key projects: The ‘Thinkuknow’ education programme which aims to educate children, young people, their parents and carers about the dangers children could face when using online and mobile technology; and a project to build capacity and training initiatives in areas that are known to be a base for criminals involved in the commercial distribution of child abuse images.
Valerie Dias, Executive Vice-President & Chief Risk and Compliance Officer, Visa Europe, commented: “We are proud of our ongoing involvement in the work of CEOP and the EFC, which are a vital part of the battle against this horrific crime. Visa’s stance on the commercial exploitation of child abuse is unequivocal – we do not allow our products to be used to facilitate these transactions and we have a global programme in place that constantly monitors the internet.
“CEOP works by gathering and sharing intelligence and provides a single point of contact for the public, law enforcers, industry, governments and institutions. We believe that this collaborative effort is essential to boost the knowledge and expertise and help track down criminals and protect the vulnerable”.
Jim Gamble, Chief Executive, CEOP commented: “We are extremely pleased to renew our partnership with Visa Europe. Their financial support and expertise enables us to better understand how payment systems can be abused for the commercial exploitation of children. This support has already made a huge difference to the work of the CEOP Centre and our partnership has undoubtedly led to more children being protected. We look forward to developing this critical partnership in the years ahead.”