Proceedings [PDF] - Measurement and Analysis of P2P Activity ...

International Conference Advances in the Analysis of Online Paedophile Activity Paris, France; 2-3 June, 2009
Child pornography: the exploitation and abuse of children.
Ethel Quayle and Terry Jones
Abstract
While there has been considerable investment in the detection of online sexual offending against
children there has been little interest in the children portrayed in the images. This is reflected in the
paucity of research in this area and the fact that so few children have ever been identified. This
presentation examines the existing literature and presents new data to explore both the nature of the
images and what they might tell us about the children who are both abused and exploited.
In recent years there has been a considerable investment in the detection of online sexual
offending against children and the provision of specialized treatment facilities. In part this was in
response to a dramatic increase in the number of such people entering the criminal justice system. For
example, in the UK Middleton (2009, p 7) reports that, ‘For England and Wales in 1999, there were
238 convictions for publication, possession or distribution of obscene matter and indecent
photographs of children. By 2005 they had reached 1,296 (Hansard, 2008)*an almost 500% increase
in convictions. The total sexual offence convictions (all sexual offences) in 2005 was 4,800 (Home
Office, 2006). Therefore, in this year convictions for internet-related sexual offences accounted for
almost one-third of all sexual offence convictions. This level of convictions had a significant effect on
the proportion of sex offenders entering or waiting to commence treatment programmes, leading to
questions of suitability of the treatment programme content, appropriate treatment dosage and
possible ‘‘contamination effects’’ of exposure to contact child sex offenders’. The emergence of this
population has also resulted in an increased body of research that explores the underlying aetiology
and contexts associated with online sexual offences against children (for example, Elliott and Beech,
2009). There has, however, been little published literature that relates to the children within these
images and interest has focused largely on populations that predate the Internet. This short paper
seeks to address this by turning our focus back to child pornography as it relates to victimisation.
Online sexual offences against children are often associated with downloading, trading or the
production of child pornography (Quayle, 2008) and while interest in child pornography is not new
(Lanning, 2000), it is the case that with each technological advance we have seen an increase in the
availability of such materials, and this has been most noticeable in relation to the advent of the
Internet. There are historical accounts of child pornography and its distribution, which appeared to be
facilitated by the popular use of photography (Taylor and Quayle, 2003). The criminalisation of such
material, however, made access both difficult and dangerous, although there was a period of
approximately ten years when in some European countries all pornographic materials were
decriminalised. In part this appears to reflect an absence of concern with those involved in the
production of the material (both children and adults) and more a concern with the consumer. In
Denmark the anti-pornography laws were repealed in 1969 and Sweden then followed in 1971, and
this resulted in a booming trade in child pornography, with the appearance of material in the media
and in ordinary shops (Schuijer and Rossen, 1992). Such decriminalisation of child pornography and
its subsequent ease of both production and distribution arguably resulted in the depathologising of
some interests and behaviors, or at least a decoupling of some of our assumptions between the nature
of sexual interest in children and the notion of sexual harm (Quayle, 2008). However, it is of interest
that much of the commercial production of child pornography during this period involved images of
children that were produced in a domestic context and sent on to magazine editors in exchange for
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