Theme Paper on Child Pornography for the 2nd World Congress on Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children

• NCJ Number: 195562
• Author(s): John Carr
• Date Published: 2001
• Length: 47 pages
• Corporate Author: Children & Technology Unit NCH
• Sale Source: Children & Technology Unit NCH
• Publication Format: Document (Online)
• Publication Type: Thesis/Dissertation
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom
• Note: Downloaded June 26, 2002

Annotation

This document presents information on child pornography and recommendations to protect children.

Abstract

Many countries have enacted legislation that outlaws child pornography, but a large number have relied on existing laws relating to pornography or general laws relating to the corruption of minors. The damage that sex abuse can do to a child is extremely serious. If the abuse has been captured via a pornographic image, the original abuse is compounded and magnified. These images become ineradicable records of abuse. The link between child prostitution, child sex tourism, and child pornography is very strong. Several of the countries where these practices are prevalent are becoming major sources of new child pornography. In the past, child pornography was found mainly in paper-based photographic forms, magazines, on videos, and in drawings. The arrival of the Internet, linked with other technological advances, has resulted in an enormous change in the volume and nature of available child pornography. The Internet not only acts as a mechanism for making, displaying, trading, and distributing child pornography, it also provides a vehicle for child pornographers to make contact with and ensnare new victims. The Internet is creating new classes of users of child pornography as well as allowing the development of well-organized, highly technical rings of child sex abusers who also produce and distribute child pornography. The emergence of commonly available strong encryption technologies has been an asset to the criminal who uses computers to avoid detection or hide the evidence of crime. Operation Cathedral was a large British police and Interpol operation that uncovered a child pornography ring with 180 known members spread across 49 different countries. Recommendations include harmonizing national and international laws and definitions of child pornography; developing expertise and resources within national law enforcement agencies to act against child pornographers; and developing technologies to locate child pornographic images on the Internet more swiftly to allow for fast identification and removal. 6 appendixes