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Implementation
The above European and international partnerships were capable of joining together relevant actors
and express various strategies, such as socially responsible undertakings and the removal of child abuse
material (‘data minimisation’). No specific public-private sector partnerships have been found for other
technological developments – such as cloud computing.
Affiliate marketing, traffic brokering and search engines
Various actors and services exist within the online adult industry, of which the sale of pornography
is one example. By means of pornographic websites, companies are able to earn money in a number
of other ways and these business models also seem to apply to sites that operate in the ‘grey area’ of
(child) pornography, such as modelling websites. 831 There are also indications that revenue models and
organisational structures of standard websites are similar to those of websites which clearly feature
child abuse material. 832 Free websites also have revenue models. Research reveals that both paid and
unpaid websites consist of networks, in which consumers are referred to other websites. 833 Service companies
that provide affiliate marketing, 834 specialised adult search engines and traffic brokering, play
an important role within these networks. The essence of this is that legal and illegal content providers
need to make their location known, because they would not sell anything otherwise, 835 and at the same
time, consumers are actively searching for material online. 836 It is the above-mentioned service providers
who fulfil a key role in bringing together supply and demand. These service providers have probably
included the stipulation in their conditions that they shall not link traffic to child pornography and/or
child erotica websites, 837 but research reveals that affiliated programs and traffic brokers do not usually
monitor websites for content or do not verify the identity of the applicant. 838 What is more, child abuse
thumbnails are sometimes placed on TGP(CJ) sites 839 – an affiliated marketing technique – in order to
831 The grey area includes images in which it is unclear as to whether the material constitutes child pornography
due to questions surrounding the age of the child that is depicted, the sexual conduct that is
depicted (whether or not this constitutes child abuse material) and/or is sufficiently realistic, see §1.4.1.1.
832 European Financial Coalition, 2010, pp.9-10.
833 Wondracek et al., 2010.
834 “The term ‘affiliate’ has taken on a special meaning within the realms of internet marketing. In this
context, an affiliate is a partner who, for a certain fee, ensures a flow of visitors to the website of the
affiliate merchant, the advertiser, by means of links on his/her website. Thousands of affiliate programs
exist that provide the correct means of achieving this. In the Netherlands, we also speak of partner
programs.” affiliate.uwstart.nl/,, (viewed 26 August 2011).
835 Leukfeldt et al., 2009, p.26.
836 Taylor & Quayle, 2006, pp.175-182.
837 For example clickcashmoney.com/index.html (viewed 26 August 2011).
838 Wondracek e.a., 2010, p.9.
839 TGP stands for Thumbnail Gallery Post and TGP(CJ) stands for Thumbnail Gallery Post (Circle Jerk). TGP
and TGP(CJ) are both websites featuring multiple thumbnails –small images – that can be clicked on
by users of these websites. The user would then expect to arrive at a website where the thumbnail can
be viewed in large (sometimes for a fee) or where a series of similar photos can be found. TGP(CJ) sites
do not refer the user to the corresponding image, but to another TGP instead. The revenue model of
these TGP(CJ) sites is to generate a large amount of traffic (visitors) (and to sell these to TGP sites) and
advertising revenue from banners, see www.web.archive.org/web/20071023200733/www.cozyacademy.
com/classrooms/tgp/ (viewed 10 August 2011).
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