Using survey data from offenders on the Dark Web to combat online child sexual abuse and exploitation

Abstract

The Childlight Global Child Safety Institute's report in 2024 reveals that over 300 million children are victims of online sexual abuse and exploitation annually, indicating a hidden global pandemic. As a form of cybercrime, child sexual exploitation is one of the EU’s priorities in the fight against serious and organised crime and Europol has recognised darknet networks as one of the key threats in child sexual exploitation. Most Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) offenders remain undetected, limiting our knowledge of their motivations and behaviours. Existing research has largely relied on samples of convicted offenders, potentially overlooking important nuances within the broader offending population. This paper presents a model to collect data from the CSAM offenders on the dark web and summarises results from a study on the data, focusing on differences between charged and uncharged CSAM users. Data includes responses from 3,782 anonymous offenders actively searching for CSAM or seeking help for their use of CSAM on the dark web. We compare three groups of CSAM searchers: 1) those admitting charges of sexual crimes against children, 2) those admitting charges of sexual crimes against adults, and 3) those admitting no charges. Additionally, we discuss the implications of the research for practitioners and how to use this information to focus prevention strategies more effectively.