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Aug282020Guest Writer
Live-streaming is on the increase
Voluntarily and induced (either as a result of grooming or sexual extortion) self-produced live-streamed material is the type of material that occurs most commonly in investigations.
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Jul282020Guest Writer
Easy production and sharing drives the spread of child sexual abuse material
Child sexual abuse material is today stored on all possible devices and shared in all sorts of fora on the internet. The nature of sharing information follows the development of technology which throws up new challenges for law enforcement.
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Jun122020Guest Writer
Artificial Intelligence will be a major game changer
The technological development that is having the single most impact on child sexual abuse investigations is Artificial Intelligence (AI). I have used AI for many years now and in the past two or three years there have been some incredible developments.
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Mar092020Guest Writer
By using technology to our advantage we can prevent crime and safeguard children
Digital development has enabled offenders to produce and share child sexual abuse material at a previously impossible scale. In addition, the last decade’s development of social media platforms and gaming platforms has enabled offenders to reach children directly, and abuse them over the internet without meeting them in person, adding a new dimension to this crime. Live-streaming services, examined closer in this report, has pushed this development further.
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Dec052019Anna Borgström
NetClean Report 2019
The NetClean Report 2019, the fifth of its kind is now available. This year the report is based on two different enquiries – one with law enforcement and one with businesses. The results, summarised in the report, help us understand the nature of child sexual abuse crime, how it is developing and what we must do to further ensure that we fight it as well as we can.
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Oct082019Anna Borgström
Children and the digital world – a meeting at the UN
Last week I was invited to speak at the UN Headquarters in New York, where the Working Group for Child Online Safety met for the launch of the new Broadband Commission report. The launch was hosted by Permanent Mission of Sweden, Childhood Foundation USA, Broadband Commission and End Violence Against Children.
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Jul242019Guest Writer
John Shehan: There has been a significant increase in self-produced material
Self-produced material, whether voluntarily made or produced through grooming and extortion is on the rise. The images fall within a broad spectrum, from everyday holiday snaps to sexual extortion where victims are forced to take images of themselves.
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Jun052019Guest Writer
Cathal Delaney: Offender groups are becoming more organised and businesslike in their set-up
The Head of Team, Analysis Project Twins, EC3, at Europol comments on this development, based on Europol’s observations of online communication and organisation.
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May022019Guest Writer
We see limited use of cryptocurrencies as payment for child sexual abuse material
In our experience it is extremely rare that child sexual abuse material is sold on the internet. Offenders either search for the readily available free material, or they trade images and films with each other.
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Mar222019Guest Writer
Michael Sheath: Lack of insight and empathy part of the problem
Michael Sheath from the Lucy Faithfull Foundation, a UK charity that runs a helpline for people with concerns about negative aspects of their sexuality, comments on findings from the NetClean Report.
