Collective Shout at Global Summit to End Sexual Exploitation in Washington DC

It’s been a huge week for Collective Shout, with team members MTR, Caitlin, Coralie and Renee going to Washington, DC for the annual Coalition to End Sexual Exploitation Global Summit. This year’s event focused on emerging technologies and the intersections with sexual exploitation. We share some our the highlights below.

MTR & Caitlin presented at global summit

Movement Director Melinda Tankard Reist and Campaigns Manager Caitlin Roper were both invited to speak. MTR spoke about harmful sexual behaviours in schools and the role of pornography and Caitlin debunked claims that AI-generated child abuse material or child sex abuse dolls could prevent child sexual abuse.

Amazing networking opportunities

We were able to meet with our global partners in person – sometimes meeting for the first time ever. We met with friends from NCOSE, Exodus Cry and CEASE UK among many others.

We were honoured to meet (and have lunch with!) United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls Reem Alsalem, who recently released her report on prostitution citing us. MTR was also able to interview her – we’ll release the video soon.

We were also fortunate to meet and strategise with other UN members, who were eager to learn more about our work and to collaborate with us.

Members of the team pictured with Special Coordinator on Improving the UN Response to Sexual Exploitation and Abuse Christian Saunders, Senior Political Affairs Officer Ann Makome-Kaproff and researcher Courtney Jones.

Key speakers

We heard from some amazing speakers, including industry leaders and of survivors of sex trafficking and sexual exploitation (including Elizabeth Smart.)

Facebook whistleblowers Frances Haugen and David Erb, whose attempts to address grooming and child exploitation on Meta platforms were rejected because protecting children would cut into profits, also spoke.

We heard touching testimony calling on Big Tech to do more from parents like John DeMay whose son Jordan tragically died by suicide after being preyed on in a sextortion scam.

We heard from representatives from the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) on the scale of the problem. In 2023, NCMEC’s CyberTipline received 36.2 million reports of suspected child sexual exploitation.

We also participated in a session on the rise on image based sexual abuse (known commonly in 'deepfake porn'). The team proposed a global ban on undressing and nudifying apps which facilitate the nudification of any woman or girl within seconds.

MTR won an award!

Our very own MTR was awarded a surprise Global Impact award at the Gala dinner.

Rally on Capitol Hill

We attended a rally on Capitol Hill where we protested sexual exploitation along with hundreds of other conference attendees. Coralie and MTR were among conference attendees who met with political staff in the Capitol to raise issues of sexual exploitation with them.

Cultural experiences

The team also did some sight-seeing, including a Moonlight Monuments tour and taking in a few museums, including the Holocaust museum and the National Museum of African American History and Culture where we viewed an exhibition on the transatlantic slave trade.

While we have returned tired and jet-lagged, we are also inspired and reinvigorated. We’ve made some great new contacts and are in discussions for launching some groundbreaking new international campaigns. Stay tuned!