During the week starting Monday 19 May members of the Hydrant team, alongside colleagues from NAPAC travelled to the International Policing and Public Protection Research Institute (IPPPRI) Online Harms conference.

The three days were jam packed with inspiring presentations from policing, the third sector and the private sector- all sharing best practice and knowledge to enhance the global response to tackling online child sexual abuse.

Day one began with a keynote speech from Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls, Jess Philips. Minister Phillips reaffirmed her commitment to a whole system approach when tackling online child sexual abuse and welcom

ed continued work from the Hydrant Programme and CSE Taskforce.

Later in the day, our deputy director Peter Hornby alongside Detective Chief Inspector Andrew Bartholomew from South Wales Police gave insight into the support Hydrant provided South Wales police during a complex investigation into one of their own. Former officer PC Lewis Edwards blackmailed and threatened underage girls to send him explicit photos of themselves on Snapchat and has been jailed for life. The 24-year-old, who had 4,500 indecent images of children, admitted 160 counts of child sexual abuse and blackmail.

Day two saw the Hydrant team delivering three workshops. The first was from Angie Jones, our Analysis and Research manager who shared our data journey – focusing on the complex and organised child sexual abuse database (COCAD). Second up, was Olivia Peri (Guerini) and Kim Bond from NAPAC who presented on behalf of Hydrant and the CSE Taskforce about the research undertaken to enhance our understanding of ritualistic child sexual abuse. Finally, Tracey Watkinson our partnerships manager, presented alongside Phil Ashford our national CSE development coordinator about the partnerships approach to Operation Makesafe.

On Tuesday evening, the conference held an awards ceremony for the Global Online Harms awards, during which the CSE Taskforce communications team won the ‘victim support’ award for their When You Are Ready campaign.

It was an intense few days, but the team have come away from the conference with new connections and networks. We were honored to be given the opportunity to share our learning with delegates via workshops, and have some brilliant conversations at our exhibition stand…here’s to IPPPRI 2026!