Child sexual abuse material is documented sexual abuse of children. It has nothing to do with pornography. Child sexual abuse material consists of images and films and do not show adults who wear children’s clothing or call themselves “teens”. It is much worse.

According to the “2009 Annual and Charity Report” of the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) 72% of the child victims appear to be between the ages of 0 and 10; 23% six years old or under; and 3% two years or under. 44% of the images depict the rape or torture of the child. (1) There are images of penetrations of infants. According to the US-based National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), 83 % of those arrested for possession of child pornography had images of children between 6-12 years old, 39 % had images of children between 3-5 years and 19 % had images of children under 3 years old (2) .

1 http://www.iwf.org.uk/accountability/annual-reports/2009-annual-report
2 http://www.missingkids.com

During 2009, IWF took action to report 8,844 instances of child sexual abuse content around the world. Each of these actions regarded an individual web page or URL. The URLs were identified on 1,316 different domains. The number of URLs with child sexual abuse content known to IWF has remained fairly stable for the last three years however the overall number of domains on which this content is found has decreased by 57% since 2006 as the overall domains used for such purposes shift platforms and consolidate. This trend must be understood in the wider context of changes in the dynamic way in which such images are distributed, that is, often randomly generated, opportunistic and hosted on legitimate web services.

There remains a demand for access to child sexual abuse content via publically available commercial websites. These websites are often highly dynamic and have a persistent presence on the global internet. One such website was hosted briefly in the UK during 2009 before being removed. During the few days it was available on UK networks the website received requests from over 25,000 unique IP addresses worldwide, including requests from mobile internet accounts and gaming platforms.

IWF analysts have seen a trend in the abuse of free hosting services for the distribution of both commercial and non-commercial child sexual abuse content. IWF carried out a detailed analysis of 300 websites most used for storing or distributing child sexual abuse images. 51% offered free website hosting or free image sharing services which were used for criminal purposes. This sample analysis indicates that over half of the child sexual abuse content IWF identifies is found on a range of legitimate free hosting services.

IWF identified 461 criminal gangs that businesses to profit from the sexual abuse of children.

IWF also identified 286 instances of innocent websites being hacked to facilitate the distribution or sale of child sexual abuse images and were therefore unknowingly assisting criminal commercial operations. The owner of a hacked website and the company providing the hosting services are likely to be unaware of the presence of such content.

Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) 2009 Annual and Charity Report

This is a very difficult question to answer. By looking at various studies you can form a picture of the problem. Regardless of the study, however, we must be clear that more information is needed to respond accurately. In an American study (1) from 1989, the results showed that between 1 and 5 % of the population are paedophiles. According to the BRå; Crime Prevention Council in Sweden, some international research claims that less than 1 % of the adult population would have paedophile tendencies.

One person working to combat child sexual abuse material is police inspector Anders Persson. For some years, he has been requisitioned by Interpol at its headquarters in Lyon.

- The demand for child sexual abuse material is enormous. This is evident when websites featuring new images are posted. The number of visits is often so large that the hosting site where the Internet site is located notice a dramatic increase in the number of visitors.

1 Briere, J. & amp; Runtz, M. (1989). University males’ sexual interest in children: Predicting potential indices of “paedophilia” in a non-forensic sample. Child Abuse & Neglect: The international Journal, 13, 65-75.

Yes, they do. Accordingly to NetClean’s experience about 1 of 1000 watch child sexual abuse content at work. People have easy access there and many feel their office computer is more private than the one back home, where the computer is shared with the rest of the family. When a person has accepted that he or she is interested in looking at child sexual abuse content he usually doesn’t take any precautions and they allow themselves to watch the material both at the office and at home.

In an 2010 article (1) in the Boston Globe it said that Federal investigators had identified several dozen Pentagon officials and contractors with high-level security clearances who allegedly purchased and downloaded child pornography, including an undisclosed number who used their government computers to obtain the illegal material, this according to investigative reports. The investigations had included employees of the National Security Agency, the National Reconnaissance Office, and the Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency — which deal with some of the most sensitive work in intelligence and defense — among other organisations within the Defense Department.

1 http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2010/07/23/pentagon_workers_tied_to_child_porn/

A person surfing child sexual abuse material might look and act like anyone you know. There is often a false impression that there is an “ugly old man”, a recluse or a “strange” person who many believe could be interested in child sexual abuse material. Yet in fact, it could be anyone at all. Moreover, there is no link to social groups or occupations. Mr. Michael Moran, officer in INTERPOL’s Trafficking in Human Beings Sub-Directorate says:

- The reality we have to face in our societies is that there are people (men and women) who want to have sex with prepubescent children, and we need to face up to it. These people can be anyone. Police officers, system administrators, politicians and priests have all been arrested in investigations I have worked on, and each one will have offended to differing degrees and for different reasons.