The Child Online Protection Bureau is a national program for the prevention of violence and crime against children and teenagers online.

The program includes a hotline providing toll-free calls from all over the country and from any phone. The hotline deals with all offense and abuse behaviors against children committed in the online realm, including sexual abuse and prostitution. The calls are received by Police officers who received specific training, and is supported by an inter-ministerial desk with experts on online child abuse from the Ministry of Education, the MWSS, the MOH, the MNS and the MOJ, who are able to intervene and ensure that every call receives an appropriate and comprehensive response.

In 2023, the Bureau received 35,196 calls, and handled over 8,151 events. One-third of incidents (33%) are sexual harassment or abuse (sexual offenses, solicitation and harassment, distribution of images and videos, and threats and extortion). The platforms where most of the incidents took place are Instagram and WhatsApp, and the modus operandi is initial contact in a general group or on Instagram, and later an extended private correspondence.

Alongside its enforcement activity, the Bureau also collaborates with NGOs that are active in the field of commercial sexual exploitation of minors, and participates in local and national roundtables on the subject. The Investigation of child online prostitution is one of the goals set for the Bureau.

The investigation of the phenomenon of online child prostitution was set as one of the objectives of Unit 105 due to its severity, scope and implications for minors, especially in the LGBTQI community. It should be noted that those suspected of such offenses operate in camouflage, using sophisticated methods, including fictitious profiles and applications that allow anonymous registration. Added to this is the challenge of convincing minors who are allegedly involved in prostitution and harnessing their families to cooperate with the police.

In 2023, the Child Online Protection Bureau investigated around 30 cases involving the severe sexual abuse of minors online. In seventeen (17) of them, severe indictments were filed, including requests for detention until the completion of proceedings.