Statistics from child abuse hotlines funded by the Commission

28.9.2011

Question for written answer E-008898/2011
to the Commission
Rule 117
Cecilia Wikström (ALDE) , Roberta Angelilli (PPE) , Birgit Sippel (S&D) , Jean Lambert (Verts/ALE) , Timothy Kirkhope (ECR) , Kyriacos Triantaphyllides (GUE/NGL) and Marina Yannakoudakis (ECR)

The child abuse hotlines funded by the Commission have, for several years, had a contractual obligation to provide statistical information as one of their tasks and as a condition of receiving EU funding. Last year, we believe that this obligation was changed to require public statistics to be published.

With the exceptions of stopline.at’s thorough, public and consistent annual reports as well as the somewhat less detailed information provided by hotline.ie and the IWF in the UK, very little public information is available, despite the statistics being paid for by public funds. This data, if it were available, would be very useful in ensuring that child protection policies in the online environment are evidence-based and effective.

1. Where has the Commission published this data?

2. If it has not published the data, why not, particularly bearing in mind that it used public funds to generate this information?

3. Will the Commission agree to publish all the statistical data that it has available to it?

4. Can the Commission tell us where to find the public statistical information from 2010 that the hotlines were contractually obliged to produce?

5. What specific methodological advice did the Commission provide to the hotlines to ensure that the data they produce are consistent and comparable and of maximum value to policy development in this important field?

OJ C 154 E, 31/05/2012