The Unclear Picture of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) Online Volumes During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 global pandemic altered the social lives of people around the globe and centred our activities around the internet and new technologies even more than before. As countries around the world responded with lockdowns and social restrictions in order to prevent spreading the virus, concerns about the effects of those measures on child sexual abuse materials (CSAM) volumes on the internet and CSAM related offending online arose. While it is impossible to measure the entire volume of CSAM available online and CSAM related offending, there are some indicators that can be used to assess the scale of online CSAM and whether there was an upward or downward trend in CSAM related activity online and reporting over the pandemic time. Such indicators include the number of reports to hotlines combating CSAM, the number of criminal investigations and cases, and the measurements of the offenders’ online activity monitored by law enforcement and other entities. The aim of this paper is to analyse the data available in these areas and see how they picture the CSAM online problem during the COVID-19 pandemic.