Online child sexual exploitation and abuse in West Africa

Risk factors for OCSEA are prevalent and increasing across the ECOWAS region.

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This policy brief examines the prevalence of online child sexual exploitation and abuse (OCSEA) in Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire and Cape Verde, highlighting key risk factors. Data on OCSEA indicates an acceleration in uploads since 2019. The case studies reveal gaps and shortcomings in victim identification, protection and prosecution. Urgent action is required to prevent devastating consequences for individuals in West Africa.


About the authors

Thi Hoang is an analyst at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime and the managing editor of the Journal of Illicit Economies and Development. Her work focuses on the role of technology on human trafficking, migrant workers’ vulnerabilities and cybercrime. Thi supports the Tech Against Trafficking initiative as a research lead and is also the regional advisor of the Pacific Links Foundation.

Livia Wagner is the thematic lead on human trafficking at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, specialising in tech-facilitated human trafficking as well as labour exploitation in combination with natural resource trafficking. She is also part of the Advisory Board for the EU Study supporting the evaluation and impact assessment of the EU Directive 2011 on sexual exploitation of children.

Image: © Anton Ivanov/Alamy Stock Photo; Yuichiro Chino/Moment RF via Getty Images

Development partners
This publication was produced with the financial support of the European Union and the German Federal Foreign Office under the OCWAR-T project. Its contents are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union or the German Federal Foreign Office. The ISS is also grateful for support from the members of the ISS Partnership Forum: the Hanns Seidel Foundation, the European Union, the Open Society Foundations and the governments of Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden.
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