Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://anrows.intersearch.com.au/anrowsjspui/handle/1/20426
Record ID: 2a97a767-c8f5-40d6-9e8a-59a4eaed63b2
Web resource: http://bit.ly/2pJavef
Type: Report
Title: Trends in online child sexual abuse material
Authors: ECPAT International
Keywords: Offenders;Characteristics;Child sexual abuse;Perpetrators;Surveys;Victims / survivors;Data;Child abuse;Interviews
Year: 2018
Publisher: ECPAT International
Abstract:  CSAM crimes are varied and subject to
change, terminology differs across researchers
and practitioners, and inconsistent ways of
operationalising and measuring CSAM make
comparison across studies difficult. This has had a
negative impact on global efforts at data collection
across different forms of child sexual abuse and
exploitation and is the case with online CSAM.
Our capacity to evaluate the scale of the problem in
terms of the quantity of CSAM is compromised by
the volume of online content in the open, and also
hidden, Internet and the reality that content may be
removed but not destroyed.
Criminal justice data from public records, as well
as research surveys, would suggest an increase
over time in the number of CSAM crimes.
Youth-produced images pose a problem for law
enforcement in terms of resource demands
alongside their ability to determine the age of the
child and whether they have been produced as part
of coercive activity by adults or peers or represent
behaviour that is consistent with adolescent
development and risk-taking.
Mapping of existing national and international CSAM
databases would suggest that they fall largely into
two groups: hash collections and image collections.
While there are a number of databases globally,
there is limited connectivity between them.
Differences in how data is defined and recorded
means that it is impossible to draw firm conclusions
as to whether there have been changes in the
gender, age and level of violence within recorded
CSAM. However there is some converging evidence
that the percentage of egregious images has
increased over time.
Across three studies, younger victims are associated
with greater levels of sexual violence, produced
within a family context and more likely to be widely
distributed. However, the preponderance of images
are of pubescent and pre-pubescent children and
the numbers of images of very young children
(infants and toddlers) remain relatively low. This is in
contrast to the views of experts interviewed in the
current study.
The majority of victims and offenders are white
Caucasians, and while there has been an increase
in other ethnic groups, these numbers remain
disproportionately small. This does require further
investigation given the increasing availability of
Internet connectivity through hand-held devices
across hand-held devices and the concerns
expressed about, for example, live streaming of
abuse.
URI: https://anrows.intersearch.com.au/anrowsjspui/handle/1/20426
Appears in Collections:Reports

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