The dark web world refers to illegality where you find anything dark including drugs, child pornography, hiring hitmen, fraud, weapons, etc. This part of the internet mostly depends on drug trading while the Child Sexual Abuse Material is second on lead. In this post, we have shared the insights of CSAM: Child sexual abuse material on the darknet and where this data is mostly available. So, without any further daily let’s move to the topic.
CSAM – Child Sexual Abuse Material
CSAM: child sexual abuse material also known as child exploitation material is the current term used to designate child pornography. Basically, the term pornography suggests consent, and it is challenging to what level of consent exists in the making and distribution of adult pornography. While in the case of CSAM, it is not likely for any child to consent in the first place. CSAM means any media including pictures, videos, and live streaming that show sexual violence against a child.
CSAM in the Digital Age
The Internet is spreading massively and it brought new opportunities in crime and 18+ content. Peer-to-peer networks let a user search the local disk of nearby computers for music files and, when found, download them directly. Additionally, other more extensive peer-to-peer networks were developed that also facilitated the sharing of digital images and movie clips. Images and movies sought for and shared also included child sexual abuse material.
However, the rise of dedicated online forums focusing on “child love”. But before these forums, it had been a local matter their trade mostly coming from the city they were held in. Social media altered this and allowed communications with compatible others from all over the world. The arbiters of these forums had to be keen on members not obliging crimes while in the forum environment. However, the visitors of forums use nicknames to communicate online. Because they know that their identity could be easily exposed either by hackers or by the police.
Child Sexual Abuse Material on the Darknet
The dark net forums decreased the fear of being exposed. The dark web is the ideal platform for making online spaces as hosting forum sites only accessible through Tor network users. People who have a sexual interest in minors could come together to freely discuss their thoughts and feelings without fear of being identified.
The dark web offers anonymity a new place to access and chat about CSAM, connecting demand and supply on a record worldwide scale. Right now, child sexual abuse on the darknet forums is at the heart of a worldwide online community. It helps the interests of hundreds of thousands of individuals with a sexual desire in children.
Range of CSAM on the Dark Web
Child sexual abuse material on the darknet is really easy to access via the TOR network and other anonymous networks. Its base nature is demonstrated in a few stories about drugs, hiring hitmen, fraud, computer crime, trolling child abuse, etc. The level of anonymity and the strong network appear to make criminals more comfortable in offending and discussing their sexual interests.
The dark web has over 176,683 unique onion domains with a daily average of 45,000 active sites in total. One-fifth of the dark web site share Child sexual abuse material with a daily average of 45,000 active sites in total. 165 of the active sites were related to drugs and 2% were related to child abuse sites. However, according to the internet-based traffic child sexual abuse material sites on the darknet are over 80% of browsing requests per day.
Child sexual abuse material on the Darknet is easily available using tor-specific search engines. People around 32.5% search for this type of material as Child Porn. Some of these search sessions include either ‘girls’ or ‘boys’ while searching for girls is more widespread. Most CSAM search sessions contain the terms ‘pain’, ‘hurt’, ‘torture’, ‘violence’, ‘violent’, ‘destruction’, or ‘destroy’, and seeking torture material is not typical. 11.1% search for CSAM on these search engines with the age around;
- 15.9% for below 14-year-olds
- 11.6% for 14-year-olds
- 10.9% for 15-year-olds
- 12.7% for 16-year-olds
Availability of Child Sexual Abuse Material on the Darknet
People find Onion sites for accessing Child Sexual Abuse Material. most of the people using these three ways;
- Social networking sites such as Twitter and Reddit
- Dark Web search engines
- Randomly encounter links when browsing the Dark Web
Since Tor or dark web hidden search engines help as popular entry points to CSAM. Three prominent Tor search engines include;
1: Ahmia.fi
LINK: https://ahmia.fi/
2: OnionLand
LINK: https://www.onionland.io/
3: Onion Search Engine
Link: https://onionengine.com/
Final Thoughts
There are many dark web forums and sites that serve the criminal needs of millions of users each day. Many of them are specifically keen on the exchange of child sexual abuse material on the darknet. In this post, we have described in detail about the CSAM – child sexual abuse material on the Darknet and where this data is mostly available.