Programmes

Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM), historically referred to as “child pornography”, is an increasingly growing international concern. Given the global reach of perpetrators via the internet, ECPAT NZ focuses on providing a web-based reporting tool that enables the public to report child sexual abuse material that they have encountered. We also sit on the Independent Reference Group for the Digital Child Exploitation Filter operated Aotearoa Government’s Department of Internal Affairs (DIA).

ECPAT NZ provides public and in-house training to governmental and non-governmental organisations, frontline professionals, and the wider public on how to identify, address and prevent commercial sexual exploitation of children using a trauma-informed approach. Have a look to see when our next workshop is or get in touch to book a tailored training for your team.

ECPAT NZ’s online Community of Practice is a space for trained social and community workers who work with tamariki and rangatahi affected by sexual exploitation, those who wish to increase their knowledge, contribute to advocacy, or those who have a particular interest in the issue. We welcome new members throughout the year.

As the only organisation with the sole focus of addressing child sexual exploitation in Aotearoa, ECPAT continues to focus on campaign work and awareness raising. We speak at a range of public events to raise the profile of this type of child abuse, including within the financial sector, police, health, government, sexual violence conferences, and within the development sector. We are currently campaigning for a dedicated help line for trafficking and modern slavery.

A big part of ECPAT NZ’s mission is to advocate for the needs of children and young people experiencing – or at risk of – being sexually exploited for money. Much of our advocacy work involves collecting trends, challenges, information, and stories from those engaging directly with tamariki and rangatahi and sharing them with relevant government and international agencies.

Research is a crucial area of focus for ECPAT NZ, given the national lack of consistent data on the commercial sexual exploitation of children and young people. Our current research focus is funded by the Ministry of Justice and seeks to understand victim experience of child sexual exploitation. Previous research projects involved collating information from social workers and underage sex workers to gain a picture of trends in Aotearoa relevant to child sexual exploitation.

ECPAT NZ provides a referral service for people seeking support for themselves, or on behalf of someone else such as a friend, child or client. We know how hard it can be to identify that you are being abused or exploited, let alone to reach out for support or navigate services. We have created a pathway that maps out steps you can take to get help and where to get it from, and ECPAT NZ’s trained staff can help you access these services.

It is of the utmost importance to ECPAT NZ to place the voice of the survivor at the heart of the work that we do. Our Survivor Voice project aims to amplify the voices of victims/survivors and enable them to contribute to our other programmes. We have lived experience represented at all levels of ECPAT NZ.