Child Pornography in Cyberspace: Key Trends and Challenges

The problem of children being used as sexual objects has been persistent for ages. However, until the invention of Internet, child pornography was limited, with images being produced locally, expansive and difficult to obtain. Internet gave child pornography and child sexual abuse a completely new and global dimension. Child abusers can use its facilities to easily access and download images of child sexual abuse content that are produced in another city, country or continent and similarly produce and disseminate child abuse content worldwide with just a mouse click. On the other hand, cyberspace has posed many new obstacles for the investigation and prevention of sexual abuse of children. This paper constitutes a descriptive overview of the problem of child sexual abuse on cyberspace, including an analysis of the offenders' and children's online behavior habits. It follows with a description of the key trends of child sexual abuse. Finally, online and challenges in the investigation and prosecution of such crimes are treated.