A/HRC/12/23 page 15 1. Identification of child victims still difficult 74. Identifying and establishing the whereabouts of a child who has participated in pornographic scenes are difficult tasks for the authorities. Even once the victim is identified, it can be very difficult to help them deal with the trauma caused by participation in the acts in question, because the victim realizes that those images have been saved, disseminated or distributed in one form or another. In order to identify and track down child victims of online sexual exploitation many countries have established units specializing in combating child pornography, which cooperate with The International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL), Europol, the FBI, etc. 75. However, identifying victims is a key step but remains difficult and very dependent on the information available from ISPs and, therefore, on their cooperation. Given that most ISPs are not obliged to keep records of the sites their clients have visited, they may be unable to provide any information because the site has been taken off the system. 76. Rapid acquisition of information about sexual predators (name and IP address) has been facilitated in some countries (South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States) by the adoption of a law requiring ISPs to provide information to the police without the need for a court order. 77. Identification of child victims of sexual abuse through image analysis is essential because many victims do not lodge a complaint with the police. Image analysis, which has led to the rescue of hundreds of children around the world, is a highly specialized and rigorous process that requires a great deal of time, enormous expertise and leading-edge computer technology. It is an expensive investment that the developing countries cannot afford. 78. In order to coordinate efforts aimed at identifying children through image analysis and help manage large quantities of evidence, law enforcement agencies around the world are preparing databases of known images of sexually exploited children. INTERPOL has created such a database. 79. The INTERPOL/Child Abuse Image Database (ICAID) contains more than 550,000 images submitted by member countries. It uses image recognition software to link images from a single series of abuses or taken at the same location and has helped investigators identify and rescue 870 victims around the world. The sharing of images enables police authorities to deliver more rapid assistance to victims at the national and international levels. Such databases also contain information on victims already identified and rescued, which saves other police services the task of pointless investigations. 80. In the United States the authorities send all images to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC, established in 2003). The NCMEC Child Victim Identification Program is a national information centre for child pornography cases in the country and is the main focal point for international bodies. Its analysts try to identify victims and individuals involved in the sale, exchange and distribution of images. To date, NCMEC has processed more