Children are being sexually abused live on camera while offenders thousands of kilometres away pay to watch, issue instructions and finance the abuse, according to a new report by the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC).
The report examines the complex ecosystem behind live streamed child sexual abuse, revealing how technology, financial systems, vulnerable communities and networks of offenders and facilitators combine to enable the crime across international borders.
The research was commissioned by the Behavioural Science team working on the Counter Child Sexual Abuse Mission at the UK’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ).
It found that live streamed child sexual abuse is not simply a crime committed by isolated individuals. Instead, it operates through interconnected networks involving consumers, facilitators, victim-survivors, communities and service providers.
Offenders can use everyday technology and payment systems to find victims or facilitators, communicate privately, transfer money and watch abuse in real time.
AIC Deputy Director and report author Dr Rick Brown said the findings showed why efforts to combat the crime needed to look beyond individual perpetrators.
“Live streamed child sexual abuse is an infrastructure-enabled crime.”
Brown said global technological and financial systems allowed offenders to find each other, communicate privately, transfer money and transmit live video across borders.
The report said hardware manufacturers, telecommunications networks, online service providers and financial platforms could unintentionally create the infrastructure that enables the offending.
Brown said stronger safeguards across these systems were therefore essential to disrupting the crime.
“This research shows the problem is sustained by a network of relationships involving offenders, facilitators, communities and the systems that connect them.”
One of the most disturbing findings was the role that trusted adults can play in facilitating abuse.
Researchers found that facilitators can include parents, relatives and other trusted adults, making the offending particularly difficult to detect and prevent.
The report found that relationships within the ecosystem can involve both cooperation and coercion.
Some participants may be motivated by financial incentives, while children can be subjected to familial pressure, threats and other forms of coercion.
The researchers said community norms, economic incentives and social contagion could also help sustain the offending at a local level.
The study identified a pattern in which live streamed child sexual abuse appears to flourish where strong digital infrastructure intersects with economic vulnerability.
Researchers found evidence suggesting the offending is concentrated in middle-income countries with high internet and mobile-phone penetration, accessible remittance systems and significant economic inequality.
The report describes this as a “Goldilocks effect”, with the Philippines identified as the global epicentre of live streamed child sexual abuse.
The combination of widespread digital connectivity, accessible payment systems and economic vulnerability can create conditions in which offenders overseas can pay facilitators to arrange and livestream abuse.
The AIC said understanding the wider ecosystem could help authorities identify points where the offending could be disrupted.
Brown said prevention could not rely solely on police investigations after abuse had occurred.
“Effective prevention requires a coordinated response involving technology companies, financial institutions, law enforcement agencies and communities working together to reduce opportunities for offending and protect vulnerable children.”
The report recommends a broader focus on the systems and relationships that allow offenders to connect, communicate and move money across borders.
It argues that disrupting those connections — including through stronger safeguards within technology and financial infrastructure — could reduce opportunities for offenders to exploit children.
The AIC said the research provides an overview of existing evidence on the ecosystem surrounding live streamed child sexual abuse and highlights areas where further prevention and enforcement efforts could have the greatest impact.
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