International Working Group on Best Practice in the Management of Online Sex Offending (IWG): updating and consultation session

The International Working Group on Best Practice in the Management of Online Sex Offending (IWG) was established at the 13th IATSO Conference in September 2014 in response to the increasing scale and impact of online sexually exploitative behaviour, including the production, possession and distribution of illegal images of children, the sexual exploitation of children in under-developed countries, children being abused live online, and ‘online grooming’. The IWG is a collaboration between academia and relevant stakeholders concerned with the management of online sex offending, notably policy-makers, police, and treatment and management services, with the initial aim to release a Consensus Paper in order to: 1) standardise and validate existing offender management strategies; 2) offer resources that can be adapted to relevant policing, legal and other management interventions (e.g. decision supports for investigative case prioritisation / sentencing activities) and 3) be a point of reference for countries that are in the process of developing strategies for combatting and managing this rapidly expanding and internationally interconnected offending type. The proposed session will provide an opportunity for IATSO academics and practitioners to feed into the Consensus Paper by raising challenges and good practice examples in the work with online sex offending.