Their primary objective is to make sure the child is safe in their own home or when with adults who are responsible for their care. Child sexual abuse can be a very confusing topic, both to adults and to children. Below are six clarifications of common misunderstandings many adults have articulated on our Helpline while attempting to make sense out of confusing situations. They also “restrict specific sensitive media, such as adult nudity and sexual behaviour, for viewers who are under 18 or viewers who do not include a birth date on their profile”. “We use a combination of state-of-the-art technology together with human monitoring and review to prevent children under the age of 18 from sharing content on OnlyFans.

Is it illegal to use children’s photos to fantasize?

His job was to delete content that did not depict or discuss child pornography. These are very young children, supposedly in the safety of their own bedrooms, very likely unaware that the activities they are being coerced into doing are being recorded and saved and ultimately shared multiple times on the internet. Below is the breakdown of the sexual activity seen in the whole sample alongside the activity of those that showed multiple children. Most of the time these children are initially clothed and much of what we see is a quick display of genitals.

• The city of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, was shaken by revelations in December 2023 that two local teenage boys shared hundreds of nude images of girls in their community over a private chat on the social chat platform Discord.
• Of the 2,401 ‘self-generated’ images and videos of 3–6-year-olds that we hashed this year, 91% were of girls and most (62%) were assessed as Category C by our analysts.
• If everyone starts to recognise this material as abuse, it is more likely that an adequate and robust child protection response will follow.
• Hayman testified last year at the federal trial of the man who digitally superimposed her face and those of other child actors onto bodies performing sex acts.

After paying IDR 50,000 with photo proof of transfer, Jack immediately sent 441 videos measuring 150 gigabytes. A large chunk of the victims, 38.8 percent, in 2022 were minors who took selfies, while 16.9 percent were filmed secretly, and 15.7 percent were victims filmed during prostitution or sex. Back in 2013, those in their 30s made up the largest age group, followed by those in their 20s and teens. We encourage you to share our campaign using #ThinkBeforeYouShare and by following, liking and sharing the campaign on our social channels.

However, survivors have described difficulty healing when their past abuse is continuing to be viewed by strangers, making it hard for them to reclaim that part of their life. Children and teenagers are being sexually abused in order to create the images or videos being viewed. Excuses such as “they’re smiling so they must be okay” ignore that these children and youth are being told what to do by adults, may be threatened to do this, and are not legally able to consent.

Understanding harmful sexual behaviour

In the last year, a number of paedophiles have been child porn charged after creating AI child abuse images, including Neil Darlington who used AI while trying to blackmail girls into sending him explicit images. “This new technology is transforming how child sexual abuse material is being produced,” said Professor Clare McGlynn, a legal expert who specialises in online abuse and pornography at Durham University. The UK sets online safety priorities, urging Ofcom to act fast on child protection, child sexual abuse material, and safety-by-design rules. Find out why we use the term ‘child sexual abuse’ instead of ‘child pornography’.

Working with a counselor, preferably a specialist in sexual behaviors, can begin to help individuals who view CSAM take control of their illegal viewing behavior, and be accountable, responsible, and safe. Most of the images and videos showed children in a home setting and most often in a child’s bedroom. In the backgrounds, analysts saw soft toys, games, books and bedding featuring cartoon characters. In some images the location could not be determined as the image was very close up. This is, of course, particularly the case for the age group we are looking closer at in this study. 3-6-year-old children are sexually naive and would not normally be aware of the possibility of this type of sexual behaviour without someone else telling them or showing them what to do.

A picture of a naked child may be considered illegal CSAM if it is sexually suggestive enough. Also, the age of consent for sexual behavior in each state does not matter; any sexually explicit image or video of a minor under 18 years old is illegal 2. Child sexual abuse material is a result of children being groomed, coerced, and exploited by their abusers, and is a form of child sexual abuse. But using the term ‘child pornography’ implies it is a sub-category of legally acceptable pornography, rather than a form of child abuse and a crime.