Tirana, 13 September 2024 – The General Director of CRCA/ECPAT Albania together with the Executive Director of the National Child Helpline (ALO 116-111) held this morning a joint meeting with the Chairman of the Independent Authority for Electronic and Postal Communications, Mr. Tomi Frashëri, to strengthen the cooperation among the organisations, while share our concern on the use of domains ending with AL for possession and distribution of child sexual abuse materials (CSAM).

Over the past few months, iSIGURT.al has received a series of complaints lodged by our international partners regarding the use of domains that end with AL for possessing and distributing of what the Albanian Criminal Code considers as child pornography. These domains, whose approval is made only by AKEP for users in Albania, seems then are given for use or sold to perpetrators in several other countries, who use the pages for keeping and distributing CSAM.

During the meeting, the parties discussed finding a lasting solution for the recording and blocking of material containing sexual violence against children, both legally and institutionally. According to CRCA/ECPAT Albania, AKEP as the responsible authority, should not hold a neutral role in this matter, waiting for the blocking orders to come from the Law Enforcement Agencies or prosecution. In this context, it was requested that AKEP play a proactive role in tracking these sites and blocking them immediately.

The meeting also discussed strengthening cooperation in the framework of strengthening the legal basis that would enable a better protection of children in cyberspace.

For more information, contact:

CRCA/ECPAT Albania                              

E-mail: crca@crca.al