Child pornography

SIGNIFICANCE: Although adult pornography has been a tolerated, if not fully accepted, part of human culture throughout recorded history, child sexual abuse material (CSAM), formerly referred to as child pornography, is another matter—one that evokes nearly universal disgust across all social boundaries. However, internet technology has added a new dimension to CSAM that presents unprecedented challenges to the efforts of the criminal justice system to combat the spread of CSAM and its associated exploitation of children.

The roots of child sexual abuse material date back to ancient Greece, and it flourished in England during the nineteenth century. However, the true birth of CSAM occurred during the mid-1960s, with an explosion in the production of sexually graphic photographs of children in Europe, Asia, Australia, and North Africa. By the late 1960s and early 1970s, CSAM was the basis of a major worldwide market. This development was partly the result of a relaxation of laws against magazines containing sexually explicit images of children in many countries.

The US government began to take action against the widespread availability of child sexual abuse material with the Supreme Court’s 1982 ruling in New York v. Ferber. That case came to the Supreme Court in a challenge to a New York anti-child pornography law, which the Court upheld. The case brought CSAM to the attention of the American public. In response to a subsequent public outcry, a series of campaigns was waged against this burgeoning problem. By the mid-1980s, CSAM was virtually abolished in the United States. Its production was laborious and costly, and purchasing it was difficult and subject to severe criminal penalties.

Since then, however, technological advances, particularly regarding the internet, have altered the situation by making sexually explicit materials convenient and inexpensive to distribute in volume. This has allowed for the almost instantaneous and anonymous dissemination of CSAM through sites on the web, email, instant messaging, bulletin boards, chat rooms, peer-to-peer file-sharing networks, gaming devices, and social media. Indeed, the advent of the internet has acted as the impetus for the resurgence of a nearly extinct subculture that has become part of a global network devoid of boundaries.

While the trafficking of CSAM was once limited by geography, the internet has served as a hunting ground for sexual predators. The fact that CSAM has now found an electronic safe haven has made it one of the most controversial issues of modern law enforcement and has provoked enormous social concern.

Defining Child Sexual Abuse Material

Because of conflicting laws in various countries, there is considerable disagreement over definitions of child pornography. Most laws prohibit depictions of sexual activities involving children below specified ages, but the ages vary from country to country. Some countries disallow all illustrations of nude minors, some forbid written works describing sexual activities of minors, and others even prohibit simulated pornography—cartoons, paintings, drawings, and computer-generated images.

The United States Criminal Code now defines child pornography to include all photographs, films, videos, and other visual representations, regardless of how they are made, showing persons who are, or who are depicted as, being under the age of eighteen years engaged in explicit sexual activity. The second part of the code’s definition includes written materials and visual representations that promote sexual activity with persons under the age of eighteen. Although the term "child pornography" is still used in certain circumstances, including in federal statutes in the US, the phrase has been largely replaced by "child sexual abuse material," or CSAM. This term was designated the preferred term in 2016, when a group of countries and international organizations working to end child exploitation formally recognized it as such.

The advent of sexting—the sharing of sexually explicit or suggestive, nude or seminude photographs, videos, or textual messages, primarily via text messaging or social media—has shaken up the definition of CSAM in the United States. An increasing number of children have access to or ownership of smartphones, and while studies vary widely on the number of adolescents who have sexted, most estimates reveal 15 to 20 percent of adolescents and young adults have sexted at some point. Such images, when distributed beyond their intended audience (most often a romantic partner or a would-be partner), can cause shame and ostracism; however, more importantly, the creation and sharing of that content, if it depicts the nudity or sexual activity of persons under eighteen, constitutes the creation and dissemination of CSAM, while the receipt of it, whether desired or solicited or not, is considered receipt of CSAM. In many states, those caught engaging in sexting can be convicted on CSAM charges, face juvenile detention, and be required to register as a sex offender. Moreover, these situations can also quickly escalate to felonies, with images being shared across state lines.

Prevalence of Child Sexual Abuse Material

The incidence and prevalence of child sexual abuse material are difficult to quantify due to underreporting and the hidden nature of the crime. However, recent data show the problem has grown rapidly in the twenty-first century. In 2024, the Internet Watch Foundation identified over 285,000 URLs hosting CSAM, with the United States hosting more than any other country in the world. This figure grew especially rapidly during the COVID-19 pandemic, as both children and sexual predators spent more time online. Indeed, the global scale of technology-facilitated sexual exploitation is staggering: an estimated 300 million children, or 12.5 percent of children worldwide, were victims of online sexual abuse in 2024, according to the Childlight Global Child Safety Institute.

As technology has become increasingly sophisticated in the twenty-first century, the scope of CSAM has grown and become more challenging to mitigate. Increasing volumes of material are being created, shared, and stored online, and content is becoming more violent and exploitative. As offenders often use encrypted platforms and cloud storage to distribute material, detection and prosecution have become more difficult. Furthermore, CSAM generated by artificial intelligence (AI) has surged in the 2020s, complicating legal and ethical responses.

Children encounter CSAM through unmonitored or unsafe online environments, especially on platforms that allow anonymous messaging, file sharing, or live streaming. These include social media apps and gaming chat rooms and devices, where predators may attempts to share harmful content or groom children.

As these problems have become better known, parents have taken greater initiative in monitoring their children's online activities and educating them on safe, responsible internet use. Caregivers and educators have worked to promote digital safety practices and the use of parental controls. According to the Pew Research Center in 2020, 71 percent of parents surveyed believe that giving young children access to a smartphone is more likely to result in harm than benefits.

Prosecution and Punishment

The possible prison terms for violating federal laws against CSAM and related crimes are severe:

• Possession of CSAM: 10–20 years
• Distribution or receipt of CSAM: 5–20 years
• Producing CSAM: 15–30 years

Factors such as the age of the child or children depicted, any prior sexual misconduct offenses, whether other types of violence are shown, and the number of images involved can all affect sentencing. However, the US Sentencing Commission reported in 2018 that nearly 70 percent of offenders convicted on CSAM charges receive sentences less severe than these guidelines recommend. Often, criteria such as psychological assessment of the defendant, their level of risk for contact sexual offenses, their likelihood of reoffending, the relative ages of victim and defendant, and the content itself are taken into consideration during sentencing.

Several initiatives aimed at reducing the problem were launched in 1998 in response to the public demand to end child pornography. US Congress enacted the Child Online Protection Act to require online commercial pornographers to verify the ages of internet users before allowing them to view pornography. During that same year, Congress also passed the Sexual Predators Act, which required internet service providers to notify law enforcement when they discover child pornography online.

The CyberTipline was also established in 1998 by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. This is a congressionally mandated system for reporting child sexual exploitation and is a joint venture with federal agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, US Immigration and Customs, the US Secret Service, the US Postal Inspection Service, and state and local law-enforcement agencies. As CSAM has become readily available through so many online avenues, there has been a significant increase in the number of reports submitted to the CyberTipline each year. According to the US Department of Justice, between 2013 and 2021, the number of CyberTipline reports grew from 500,000 to some 30 million.

The EARN IT Act of 2023 was introduced to revise the federal framework to better prevent the online sexual exploitation of children by holding technology companies accountable for hosting or distributing child sexual abuse material. However, no further action has been taken since it was introduced to the Senate in 2023.

Bibliography

Anderson, Monica. Parents, Teens and Digital Monitoring. N.p.: Pew Research Center, 7 Jan. 2016.

Barnitz, L. A. Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children: Youth Involved in Prostitution, Pornography, and Sex Trafficking. Youth Advocate Program International, 1998.

"Child Sexual Abuse Material." US Department of Justice, June 2023, www.justice.gov/d9/2023-06/child_sexual_abuse_material_2.pdf. Accessed 17 Oct. 2025.

Ferraro, M., and E. Casey. Investigating Child Exploitation and Pornography: The Internet, Law and Forensic Science. Academic Press, 2004.

Giacobbe, Alyssa. “Can Sexting Get You Arrested?” Teen Vogue. Condé Nast, 22 May 2011. Web. 6 June 2016.

Jenkins, P. Beyond Tolerance: Child Pornography Online. New York UP, 2001.

"Over 300 Million Children a Year Are Victims of Technology-Facilitated Sexual Exploitation and Abuse." Childlight Global Child Safety Institute, 4 Dec. 2024, www.childlight.org/newsroom/over-300-million-children-a-year-are-victims-of-online-sexual-exploitation-and-abuse. Accessed 17 Oct. 2025.

Steel, Chad M.S. et al. "Public Perceptions of Child Pornographic and Child Pornography Consumers." Archives of Sexual Behavior, vol. 51, no. 2, Jan. 2022, pp. 1173-1185, doi.org/10.1007%2Fs10508-021-02196-1. Accessed 9 July 2024.

Svedin, C. G., K. Back, and R. Barnen. Children Who Don’t Speak Out: About Children Being Abused in Child Pornography. Radda Barren, 1997.

Taylor, M., and E. Quayle. Child Pornography: An Internet Crime. Brunner-Routledge, 2003.

Williams, Rhiannon. "The US Now Hosts More Child Sexual Abuse Material Than Any Other Country." MIT Technology Review, 26 Apr. 2022, www.technologyreview.com/2022/04/26/1051282/the-us-now-hosts-more-child-sexual-abuse-material-online-than-any-other-country/. Accessed 17 Oct. 2025.