On-line Child Sex Offenders: Report on a Sample of Peer to Peer Offenders Arrested between July 2010-June 2011

Abstract

This report describes 103 cases of offenders arrested for child pornography possession identified in a Virtual Global Taskforce (VGT) police database designed to explore likely characteristics of offenders accessing, distributing or producing illegal images of children in the online or Internet medium. The production and dissemination of child pornography (CP), child abuse materials (CAM) or child exploitation material (CEM) have been widely criminalized and international efforts to suppress its dissemination endorsed by many nations. The VGT comprises nine collaborating policing agencies combating the dissemination of CEM via the Internet and digital technologies. The data collected for this study focused on the apparent uptake of peer to peer (P2P) sources of CEM (usually pre-teen children and serious sexual abuse) previously noted by practitioners and researchers as well as the significant overlap between such use and offenses against children (Wolak et al. 2011). Policing agencies are concerned that increased accessibility to such CEM may also increase risks of assault on children and whether the online trade in CEM has amplified or escalated the demand for newer and more extreme images of child sexual abuse.

Keywords: cybercrime, child pornography, child abuse, mutual legal assistance, P2P