CSAM on the Dark Web
Those of us in the field know that access to CSAM on the dark web is really only a few clicks away. Despite what many people think, it is pretty easy to access. Many of our CSAM clients were accessing these materials on TOR sites. Despite its frequent use, we really don’t know much about the details of CSAM availability and users on TOR sites.
A Study on CSAM on the Dark Web
An article just published in Scientific Reports, a Nature publication, looked at CSAM materials on TOR sites from both a computer science perspective and a public health perspective.
It is an enlightening study.
CSAM on the Dark Web: What is TOR?
For the unaware, TOR stands for The Onion Router.
It is an communication protocol that provides many layers of obfuscation for its users.
It does this by concealing the origin of the communications, resisting browser fingerprinting and circumventing traffic.
These tools allow for anonymous online hosting. On TOR sites, illegal content proliferates, whether that be CSAM sharing, drug trafficking, or other crimes.
CSAM on the Dark Web Study: The Questions
The authors of this study analyzed content on TOR sites to address the following questions:
- How much CSAM is distributed through the TOR network?
- What are users seeking and searching for?
They also surveyed the CSAM users to find out information about them.
Finally, they looked at how interventions based on searches might reduce child abuse.
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Statistical Results
- The authors used a web crawler from 2018-2023 and found that 1/5th of all TOR sites share CSAM.
- CSAM can also be found on 21 of the 26 top TOR search engines, with four of these search engines actually advertising CSAM.
- 11.1% of users specifically searched for CSAM using the phrase “child porn” to get there.
- When they surveyed the CSAM viewers, 61.6% said they have tried to stop watching it and 48.1% said they went to stop viewing CSAM.
- Those CSAM users who were specifically searching for child content were more often searching for content of girls than boys.
- More than half of the CSAM explicit searchers are looking for content in the age range of 12 to 16 year olds.
The authors went as far as to recommend that the psychiatric diagnoses of pedophilia and hebephilia be altered to sexual attraction to children under 11 (paedophilic type), attraction to children 11 to 14 (hebephilic) or both.
Who are Tor CSAM users?
The data showed that most of the CSAM users were initially exposed to CSAM when they were children and that more than half of these exposures were accidental.
- Based on self report, almost 70% reported that they preferred content of girls to boys.
- A very small percentage of individuals preferred content depicting images of infants or toddlers.
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What are possible online interventions for users of CSAM on the Dark Web?
The study reported that there are three prominent TOR search engines that provide links to self help programs for people who are concerned about their searching of CSAM. A good number of the CSAM viewers said they want to stop viewing the material and most of them have tried to stop at least once.
If so many people want help, why don’t they get help?
Many of the survey respondents stated that they were afraid to get help. Previous research has cited barriers to seeking help including fear of being reported, fear of being stigmatized, shame, and lack of understanding by professionals.
Since people who are using CSAM on TOR seem to want help, it is an area that is ripe for effective intervention. It opens up the question of whether or not more dark web recruitment for anonymous interventions is possible.
Since three websites provide links to self-help programs, why are more not doing so?
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My Takeaways from the Study on CSAM on the Dark Web
I really liked this study for two main reasons:
It was a combination of computer science and psychology
I think we know more about the psychology of CSAM users than how and where they get it.
It is often stated in court that someone who views CSAM must really be working hard to find it and view it. Studies like this one show us that it is not very hard to come across the content and more than half of the people who view it first accessed CSAM accidentally.
It Openly Discusses Interventions
It digs into how we can use these TOR sites to let people know there is help available. If they want to stop their behavior, they need to know there are therapists who can help them in a knowledgeable and non-shaming fashion.
I wonder, now, what we can do as a practice to be more active in prevention in this medium.
Reference: Nurmi, J., Paju, A., Brumley, B.B., Insoll, T., Ovaska, A.K., Soloveva, V., Vaaranen-Valkonen, N., Aaltonen, M. & Arroyo, D. (2024). Investigating child sexual abuse material availability, searches, and users on the anonymous Tor network for a public health intervention strategy. Scientific Reports, 14:7849.
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Are you looking for more reputable data-backed information on sexual addiction? The Mitigation Aide Research Archive is an excellent source for executive summaries of research studies.
