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Source publication
Background: The darknet hosts an increasing number of hidden services dedicated to the distribution of child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Given that by contributing CSAM to the forum members subject themselves to criminal prosecution, questions regarding the motivation for members contributing to darknet CSAM forums arise. Objective: Building on i...
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... by posting on the public part of the forum. In total, members posted 6772 posts, of which 23.8 % (n = 1613) were original posts, and 76.2 % (n = 5159) were replies to the original posts of others. Of the original posts 56.2 % (n = 906) contained a hyperlink. The development of forum activity over the period the forum was online is depicted in Fig. 1. Both the number of original posts (with and without a hyperlink), and the number of replies reaches a peak during the first two-and-a-half months the is online, after which levels of forum activity drops of to 228 posts per week on average. The number of posting members also fluctuates over time (Fig. 2). During the first weeks the ...
Context 2
... by posting on the public part of the forum. In total, members posted 6772 posts, of which 23.8 % (n = 1613) were original posts, and 76.2 % (n = 5159) were replies to the original posts of others. Of the original posts 56.2 % (n = 906) contained a hyperlink. The development of forum activity over the period the forum was online is depicted in Fig. 1. Both the number of original posts (with and without a hyperlink), and the number of replies reaches a peak during the first two-and-a-half months the is online, after which levels of forum activity drops of to 228 posts per week on average. The number of posting members also fluctuates over time (Fig. 2). During the first weeks the ...
Citations
This study examined 17 threads on a darknet forum for undetected online and contact child sexual offenders (CSOs) to identify key drivers and deterrents of offending and to inform intervention approaches. CSOs on the forum normalised sexual contact with children while minimising or denying the resulting harm and shifting the responsibility for offending. These cognitive drivers of offending were coupled with access to technology and close engagement with online communities supportive of child sexual abuse. Acknowledgement of the harm to children, feelings of guilt and shame, and concern about being caught by law enforcement or detected by family and friends acted as deterrents to continued offending.
Darknet forums dedicated to child sexual abuse material (CSAM) attract thousands of users interacting with each other through online communications. Given finite resources, law enforcement agencies seek ways to effectively prioritise their investigative efforts by identifying key-players that are central to the forum community. For the identification of such users, law enforcement agencies typically rely on the communication network that can be derived from messages posted on the public part of the forum. Many forums, however, also allow for private communications between members, raising the question to what extent relying on only a single mode of communication biases key-player identification. Using data on both public and private communications on two large-scale darknet CSAM forums, two communication networks are derived and their structures analysed. Measures of centrality robustness are applied to ascertain the level of bias introduced when determining key-players on only one of the available networks. Findings show only a minority of members to participate in forum communication, and limited overlap between participants active in public and private communications. Key-players emerging from combining the public and private communications resemble those from the public network only, suggesting that police prioritisation based on public postings only is still ‘on mark’. Members who are central to the private communications network may nevertheless be of special law enforcement interest.
