Don’t look away
Don’t look away!
The International Labour Organization estimates that 1.2 million children are victims of sexual exploitation every year. However, reliable data is still difficult to find. No country is immune to this crime. When you suspect child sexual exploitation or abuse in your own country, you can contact relevant local authorities or a hotline. When you are travelling abroad and you are not familiar with reporting mechanisms in a foreign country, this international reporting platform helps you to report suspicious situations at the right authorities.
Keep children safe and report suspected child sexual abuse and exploitation!
Choose a country
Choose the country where you live and/or where the suspicious situation has taken place. The police in your country are connected to Europol/Interpol and law enforcement in other countries. Always report to your national police when you know that the suspect is from your country. When neither of the countries is on the list, please send as much concrete information as possible about the suspicious situation you observed. This includes suspect(s), victim(s), location and date/time.
Choose the country where you live and/or where the suspicious situation has taken place. The police in your country are connected to Europol/Interpol and law enforcement in other countries. Always report to your national police when you know that the suspect is from your country. When neither of the countries is on the list, please send as much concrete information as possible about the suspicious situation you observed. This includes suspect(s), victim(s), location and date/time. Reporting form
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Reset filters
Other relevant hotlines
Child Helpline International can help you find the contact details of child helpline services in many countries where you can confidentially seek further assistance.
INHOPE is global network that spans 53 countries where you can report suspected child sexual abuse images or videos, including explicit content including children, through hotlines.
Report sexual exploitation of children… Even when travelling
How to react?
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01
Witness
You witness a situation, which makes you suspect that a child is being sexually exploited. Observe carefully and write down specific details about the situation. Keep in mind: What, Who, Where and When.
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02
Report
Find the country where you live or where the suspicious situation took place and report it at www.dontlookaway.report. If neither of the countries are on the list, fill in our reporting form
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Hotline
The hotline forwards the report to the authorities responsible for investigating sexual crimes and travelling child sex offenders. Reporting can be done anonymously, but the success rate is much higher when the police can contact you to ask further questions, if needed. You can choose to have direct contact with the police, or through the hotline when you want to stay anonymous.
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04
Police
Law enforcement will review and file the reported information. When the information is determined to be valid and specific enough, it can lead for further investigation and contact with police in other countries.
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Success
Success is dependent on the level of specific information provided and non-anonymous reporting. One report can expose an entire network of child sex offenders, or an offender that has been abusing children for many years.
Success Stories
In October 2025, a 77-year-old Dutch man was arrested in Thailand on suspicion of child human trafficking. The man is suspected of recruiting underage boys for a network of child abusers. They allegedly paid to abuse children. Several children were found and cared for at the scene. The man faces a 20-year prison sentence.
In December 2025, a 78-year-old man from Rotterdam was arrested on suspicion of sexually abusing children in the Philippines and livestreaming the abuse. Four children were rescued from the abusive situation.
In December 2025, a female human trafficker was sentenced to life imprisonment in the Philippines. She had offered her own daughter for sexual abuse via a live video feed in exchange for money from foreign sex offenders. The victim was eight years old when she was rescued.
If you suspect a case of sexual exploitation of children, don’t look away; report it! Let’s act together to create a world where children are protected from sexual exploitation.
What can you report?
The sexual exploitation of children includes exploitation in prostitution, sale and trafficking for sexual purposes, online child sexual exploitation, some forms of early and forced marriages and sexual exploitation in the context of travel and tourism. Perpetrators exploit children and young people by offering them gifts, drugs, money, shelter, food, promises of better status or affection in exchange for sexual activities. According to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, every person below the age of 18 is a child and has the right to be protected against all forms of sexual abuse and sexual exploitation.
Common sense is often the best guide for recognizing sexual exploitation of a child. Trust your gut feeling when you see a situation you feel is inappropriate.
Perpetrators exploit children and young people by offering them gifts, drugs, money, shelter, food, promises of better status or affection in exchange for sexual activities. According to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, every person below the age of 18 is a child and has the right to be protected against all forms of sexual abuse and sexual exploitation.
Common sense is often the best guide for recognizing sexual exploitation of a child. Trust your gut feeling when you see a situation you feel is inappropriate.
Good to know
- Sexual exploitation of children takes place in every country
- A child is any person below 18 years of age
- Girls and boys can be victims of sexual exploitation
- Sexual contact between an adult and a child is a crime, no matter the country or the culture
- Both men and women can be perpetrators
- Child sex offenders can be convicted in their country of origin and abroad
Examples of suspicious situations
- An adult touches a child inappropriately at the pool, beach, restaurant, bar, club, hotel, or at another location
- An adult isolates himself/herself with a child, e.g. in a hotel room or a (private) apartment
- A child is dancing (half) naked in front of adults
- Someone offers a child or young person for sexual services
- Someone is looking for sexual services from children or young people
- A hotel or organization allows child sexual exploitation on its premises or through other companies
- An adult talks about their sexual experience with a child
- An adult takes many pictures of children, especially on the beach and at the pool
- An adult shows sexual abuse images to a child
Suspicious situations that were reported
“Young girls on the street who ask elderly men to take them out for dinner. It was street prostitution.”
“At the exit of a hotel I saw two elderly men hand in hand with two young girls who seemed under the age of 18 years old.”
“A man was touching a young girl in an obscene manner in a restaurant. She said: ‘you have to wait until we are hidden’.”
“There were very young looking girls scantily dressed at a bar that gave massages.”
“A tourist we met was totally insinuating the fact of having an affair with a child.”
“There was a man with a very young girl in a restaurant. The girl barely spoke English and the man could not keep his hands of the girl.”
