On the 29th of September 2022, the second AviaTor Peer 2 Peer Learning Event took place in Amsterdam. This event is held twice a year and offers AviaTor users, project partners and other key stakeholders the opportunity to meet each other and exchange knowledge and expertise about the use of the AviaTor tool and the investigation methods used for the processing of NCMEC reports. This was the first time the event took place in hybrid form - meaning attendees finally had the chance to meet up in person!

The AviaTor tool is developed by the project's technological partners ZiuZ Forensic and WEB-IQ to be used by law enforcement as a prioritisation tool for the processing of NCMEC reports. As the needs of each LEA that uses AviaTor are different and legislation is subjected to change, the tool is constantly being improved and regular updates are being released. To be able to do this, receiving regular feedback from the end-users of AviaTor is vital for the developers.

The Peer 2 Peer Learning Event is an excellent way of bringing different stakeholders together and exchanging knowledge about the AviaTor tool. Events like these are vital for the creation of a knowledge community between LEAs and industry experts.

At this edition of the event, we were happy to welcome in person: law enforcement from Belgium and the Netherlands (both of them AviaTor project partners), the Czech Republic, Moldova, Greece and Estonia. The group was completed by representatives of the project partners ZiuZ Forensic, WEB-IQ and INHOPE and funding partner the European Commission. Online they were joined by law enforcement from Portugal, Moldova, Finland, Slovakia and representatives from both INTERPOL and the European Commission.

The event consisted of different formats, from product updates about the AviaTor tool itself to a series of presentations relevant to all stakeholders followed by interactive discussions.

A brief walkthrough:

• Denton Howard, Executive Director of INHOPE opened the event and thanked everybody who took the time and effort to join. He spoke about the importance of coming together now the global situation around the pandemic allows us to meet in person again.

• The development team from WEB-IQ took the attendees through the latest product updates of AviaTor, most of which were implemented upon request from law enforcement. The developers shared what they are currently working on and emphasized the importance of all users sending regular feedback to make sure AviaTor is meeting the needs of law enforcement.

• Yves Goethals, Judicial commissioner of the Child Abuse Unit of the Belgian Police showed how the BFP currently handles NCMEC reports, how AviaTor influences this right now and what it could potentially do in the future. Some examples he mentioned are the use of Artificial Intelligence to support the triage of these reports and the implementation of external tools. He followed up with an interactive discussion about the use of Artificial Intelligence in AviaTor and asked law enforcement to think about whether this could raise privacy issues within their countries.

• After a lovely lunch, the group listened to a presentation by the Portuguese police about their practical experiences in the fight against CSAM, sharing some insight into their method of working and why prioritisation of NCMEC reports is so important to them.

• The Dutch National Police gave a very insightful presentation about the use of OSINT in their investigations of child sexual abuse and exploitation.

• Dr. Michael Skidmore from the UK think tank the UK Police Foundation was kind enough to travel to the event in order to provide us with more background on their report “Turning the tide against CSAM” which led to some interactive discussions about the differences in legislation when it comes to self-generated content for minors.

• Dushica Naumicova from INHOPE shed light on the Global Standard project. This ground-breaking project aims to create a common ontology for the categorisation of CSAM schemas to, in turn, facilitate an automated translation of these schemas with the purpose of more effective processing of CSAM by hotline analysts, law enforcement officers and technology industry professionals.

• Grete Raidma, AviaTor Project Officer from INHOPE and Jos Flury from ZiuZ Forensic closed the day with a walk-through of the AviaTor Annual Report which was published in August 2022. All the attendees were given a paperback copy of the report to take home.

In conclusion, we can say that this edition of the AviaTor Peer 2 Peer Learning Event was very interesting and meaningful. Everyone went home with lots of food for thought and new and important connections were made.