A/HRC/31/58 pushed the financial sector to act and the Financial Coalition Against Child Pornography was launched in 2006 in the United States. Similarly, the European Financial Coalition against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children Online and the Asia-Pacific Financial Coalition Against Child Pornography were created. Those initiatives have shown a commitment from some banks and financial service providers to stop being indirect intermediaries in the demand for the sexual exploitation of children. Other financial service providers, such as those trading in bitcoins, are yet to take comparable measures, even though it has been emphasized that virtual currencies are extremely hard to trace and thus ideal for illegal transactions.76 75. Another noteworthy project was the collaboration between ECPAT France and Air France, as well as the sports newspaper L’Equipe, among others, in the context of the FIFA World Cup in 2014 to prevent the sexual exploitation of children on the fringes of such a major sporting event. The campaign from ECPAT France entitled “Don’t look away” was disseminated by the two private sector partners in an attempt to ensure that potential offenders understood that the sexual exploitation of children abroad would still be prosecuted.77 76. The media and the advertising world should also be actively involved in prevention efforts by refraining from promoting sexualized images of children. They lead not only to children believing that certain behaviour is acceptable at a young age, but also to potential offenders purporting that children are legitimate objects of sexual desires. 78 77. Unfortunately, the above-mentioned private sector initiatives are all voluntary and are not binding. An added challenge is the multiplication of suppliers, which renders the recognition and acceptance of the standards by all the entities concerned difficult. Moreover, most of the initiatives do not come with a monitoring mechanism; when they do, it is weak and lacks external oversight. IV. Conclusions and recommendations A. Conclusions 78. There have been several initiatives to stem the demand for the sexual exploitation of children at both the national and international levels. Existing measures to investigate and prosecute online and offline offenders are gaining pace. The private sector has also gradually understood its potential role as a facilitator and has taken several countermeasures in response. Yet the scourge of child sexual exploitation has not disappeared. This is due to the absence of comprehensive strategies to face the three levels of demand. Firstly, the continuing absence of data prevents the comprehensive mapping of the demand. Secondly, there are still too many individuals and groups at the intermediary level who see child sexual exploitation as a profitable business, despite its illegal nature. Thirdly, the underpinning causes of the demand factor are not systematically addressed and thus foster the perpetuation of child sexual exploitation. Lastly, there is still room to harmonize criminal provisions and penalties to ensure that no offender enjoys 76 77 78 European Cybercrime Centre (Europol), “Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children Online: A Strategic Assessment”, 2015, pp. 33-34. See http://ecpat-france.fr/kaka-et-juninho-soutiennent-la-campagne-ne-detournez-pas-le-regard1414/. See A/68/275, para. 47. 19