Justice minister Ferd Grapperhuis has said that he wants to make it a criminal offence to share tips about how to sexually abuse or groom children, in a briefing to parliament.

As part of changes to known toughen up child protection laws, he said that sharing this kind of material – commonly known as a ‘pedo handbook’ – endangers children.

‘Australian press reports suggest for example that while the world aims its arrows at combatting the Covid-19 pandemic, child abusers are immersing themselves online in the possibilities for abusing children by manufacturing guides and sharing them on the dark web.’

He said that such material could be easily available to potential child abusers and ‘lowers the [difficulty] threshold’ for them. He wants to make it a criminal offence punishable by up to four years in jail for possession of such information.

It is currently a crime to possess images or film of underage children, but texts are currently not covered by the law, making it harder for police to take action against material circulating online, reports NOS.

According to a RTL Nieuws investigation, this kind of criminal handbook has been circulating the dark web for more than a decade.