In 2023, 2.739 child pornography sites blocked by the postal police

2023 saw the Postal Police and Communications to implement targeted activities to address the complex scenarios linked to cyber crimes.

In particular, the Specialty's commitment has been constantly directed towards the areas of prevention and fight against online child pornography, the protection of critical infrastructures of national importance, financial cyber crime and those relating to subversive-terrorist threats, attributable to forms of religious fundamentalism and ideological political extremism, even in international contexts.

In a scenario in which continuous technological evolution influences every action of our daily lives, the efforts of the Postal and Communications Police in the year 2023 have been constantly directed towards the prevention and fight against cybercrime in general, with particular reference to crimes against minors.

The National Center for the Fight against Online Child Pornography (CNCPO) has confirmed its role as a national point of reference in the fight against online child pornography and paedophilia.

Despite the overall decreasing number of cases, the risk for children and pre-adolescents of being the object of sexual attention from adults while online, watching their favorite videos and playing video games, does not appear to be decreasing.

The reports relating to cases of online grooming, in fact, tell of a number of cases in slight decline, higher for the groups of potential victims who are under 13. It is still worth highlighting that these are children and teenagers who should not have access to social media and who should be punctually supervised by their parents, precisely because they are particularly fragile due to their tender age.

This year, there has been an increase in cases of sextortion, which has been considered a clear risk factor for minors in recent years. In the past, it was the prerogative of the adult world, but now it frequently involves adolescents, particularly, worryingly, boys between the ages of 15 and 17.

The CNCPO's action in the area of ​​prevention is fundamental, through continuous and constant monitoring of the network, to limit the circulation of sexually explicit photos and videos made with the use of minors under the age of 18. In the year that is ending, 28.265 web spaces were viewed and analyzed, of which 2.739 were blacklisted and obscured, as they contained child pornography content.

Equally important is the counteraction work carried out by the Center and the territorial branches of the Specialty. The commitment and preparation of the women and men of the Postal Police allowed, in 2023, to report 1.224 subjects. In 2023, a slight decrease in cases of online grooming was detected, confirming however to a large extent the involvement of minors between the ages of 10 and 13.

In fact, the pre-adolescent age group is the one that has had the most technology-mediated sexual interactions, 206 out of 351 total cases. The slow increase in cases involving lured children under the age of 9 persists, a trend that is becoming more consistent following the early exposure of younger children to computer tools.

Minors under 9 years of age, lured online in the reference period were 31, equal to 9% of the cases handled by the Postal Police. Social networks and online video games are the places of contact between minors and adults that are most frequently the scene of harmful interactions, further proof of the fact that the risk is more likely to materialize when children and teenagers express themselves with lightheartedness and trust, in the languages ​​and behaviors typical of their age.