The number of known cases of sexual abuse of children and adolescents increased in Germany last year, according to a police report published on Monday.
But because police believe that many cases of such crimes go unreported, this in itself is not an alarming finding, the report said.
In 2023, the police received reports of 16,375 cases of child sexual abuse, an increase of 5.5% compared to the previous year.
In the same period, 1,200 offences involving the sexual abuse of young people were also registered. The number of cases involving images of child sexual abuse rose by 7.4% to around 45,000 cases, mainly due to the many reports from abroad.
In the situation report, the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) points out that the number of discovered cases of child abuse is closely related to the police’s monitoring activities and reporting behaviour.
“In this regard, increased police activity on criminal offences in recent years has likely led to an increase in the number of unreported cases,” the report said.
“Sexual abuse of children and adolescents is probably one of the most terrible and heinous forms of crime,” Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said when presenting the report.
Many of the victims are still very young: more than 2,200 girls and boys were under the age of 6 at the time of the abuse, the minister stressed.
The reason why such investigations sometimes come to nothing is the minimum retention period for telecommunications traffic data, in particular IP addresses, which has been suspended in Germany.
Faeser reiterated her call for new, legally compliant regulations for the storage of telecommunications traffic and location data.
