A Typology of Online Child Pornography Offending

The Australian Institute of Criminology has recently released 'A typology of online child pornography offending', based on research funded by the Australian High Tech Crime Centre. This paper includes a table which summarises this typology, which is based on type of involvement in online child pornography offending, level of networking by offenders, level of security, and indirect versus direct abuse. Knowing the differences in how online child pornography offences are committed is vitally important to understanding and combating the problem of the sexual exploitation of children. There is an increasing seriousness of offending, from offences that do not directly involve a child, to offences that involve direct contact with children, from online grooming to physical abuse. Perhaps the most important factor in law enforcement is the reliance on networks by many offenders. Concentrating on these linkages is likely to help address the problem of the proliferation of child pornography. Stopping the physical abuse of children requires an intensive investigation effort concentrating on new material and on cracking into the more secretive world of individual and networked producers. Police may use stings to locate individual offenders. The greater long term value in any sting operation may lie in exploding the view that the internet is an anonymous domain in which it is safe to offend. By catching trawlers and deterring those who may be thinking of experimenting with child pornography a low level of offending will be disrupted. The Australian High Tech Crime Centre works with the Virtual Global Taskforce of police from the UK, USA and Canada to run such sting operations and other coordinated activities.