Online Child Pornography: Problem Overview and Global Trends in Counteraction

Abstract

The authors discuss the online dissemination of child pornography. The authors analyze this phenomenon in the contemporary world and state that such crimes are large-scale and occur on all territories. At the same time, the authors claim that modern criminology does not have any special research methods of monito­ring cyber-crimes in general, or online child pornography specifically. They note that research cannot keep up with the rapid pace of information and telecommunication technologies' progress and that criminological research in this sphere is lagging behind. Applying the comparative method, the authors studied the criminalization of the online dissemination of child pornography in national legislations of different countries. It is stated that national legislations contain various tasks of counteracting the spread of online child pornography, ranging from the criminalization of this phenomenon to the improvement of the technical means of countering it. It is suggested that such a divergence of tasks is connected with the social, economic and technological development of different countries. The use of systemic analysis made it possible to specify key trends in counteracting the analyzed phenomenon. One of them is the replacement of the term «child pornography» in normative documents by the term «sexual violence against children». Violence is a constructive feature of child pornography. The authors explain he grounds for such a replacement. They describe the methods of counteracting the spread of online child pornography used in diffe­rent countries, and suggest conditionally dividing them into normative, organizational and technical ones. It is noted that NGOs and international organizations play a significant role in countering the dissemination of online child pornography. The authors outline the most relevant prospects of international cooperation in countering the sexual exploitation of children, the key of which is more active interaction between states, inclu­ding interaction under the auspices of international organizations.