Global Threat Assessment 2019 Working together to end the sexual exploitation of children online WARNING: This document contains case studies some readers may find distressing. It is not suitable for young children. Reader discretion is advised. Acknowledgements The WePROTECT Global Alliance wish to thank the following organisations for providing specialist advice, and PA Consulting Group for researching and compiling this report: Aarambh Foundation (India) ECPAT International eSafety Commissioner (Australia) European Commission Europol International Justice Mission Internet Watch Foundation INTERPOL National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (US) National Crime Agency (UK) The Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children The Lucy Faithfull Foundation UNICEF Ghana US Department of Justice © Crown Copyright 2019 This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/ version/3 or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: [email protected]. Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned. WeProtect Global Alliance – Global Threat Assessment 2019 1 Contents 01 Foreword 2 02 Aims of the Global Threat Assessment 5 03 Summary conclusions 7 04 Technology trends 10 05 Changing offender behaviours 18 06 Victims’ online exposure 26 07 The socio-environmental context 34 08 The sphere of harm 40 09 Forward look 44 10 Endnotes 46 2 WeProtect Global Alliance – Global Threat Assessment 2019 01 Foreword by Ernie Allen, Chair of WePROTECT Global Alliance At our last Summit, increasingly unable to identify and flag co-hosted with the malicious use of their own platforms. And we Global Partnership are experiencing a widening gap between to End Violence those nations who have had the time to evolve Against Children and sophisticated support services in step with the government of their technical evolution and those who are Sweden in 2018, the leaping to technology parity faster than their WePROTECT Global preparations can keep pace. Anonymity and Alliance published secure networking continue to enable offenders our inaugural Global to establish safe spaces online, where they Threat Assessment. It can network and spread tools and techniques was the first of its kind, drawing together experts to facilitate exploitation. As we develop our from across the Alliance to produce a global, understanding of the methodology and publicly available analysis of the scale and nature motivations of offenders, and of the needs of the threat facing children online, with the aim and impact of abuse on victims, it underlines of strengthening our international response. the importance of prevention and protection – stopping the harm before it takes place. With the help of PA Consulting, who have Conservative estimates of the financial impact generously supported the threat assessment pro of this crime run into the billions of dollars in bono, and the expertise and knowledge of our terms of health, social services and impact on membership, we have built on these foundations quality of life. There is an economic, operational and listened to your feedback. This next iteration and moral case to step up our response. of the threat assessment brings new insights into the nature of online child sexual abuse As more children come online around the world, in the Global South and looks ahead to how and as the technology landscape changes technological innovation will impact the threat. and evolves, we now, more than ever, need a forum for collaboration, networking and action. Our conclusions are sobering. We assess that WePROTECT Global Alliance offers a platform, the scale of the problem, both in absolute terms a voice and a toolkit for its members to tackle and in terms of reports to law enforcement and online child sexual abuse at a global scale. civil society, is increasing at an alarming rate. And Alongside this threat assessment we are also behind every one of these cases there is a child launching a Global Strategic Response, setting who needs to be safeguarded and supported. out a framework for action at transnational level, This “tsunami” of cases is increasing the burden drawing on expert views. We will continue to fight on every pillar of the WePROTECT Global to raise awareness, support action and ultimately Alliance: governments, law enforcement, civil put a stop to the sexual exploitation of our society and the technology industry. As internet children online. connectivity grows, particularly in the Global South, offenders are able to find and exploit new victims. At the same time, we are facing reduced Ernie Allen reporting as industry-applied encryption Chair, WePROTECT Global Alliance Board means that technology companies are WeProtect Global Alliance – Global Threat Assessment 2019 3 Definitions and scope The WPGA endorses the scope set out in the European Convention on the Protection The WePROTECT Global Alliance (WPGA) of Children against Sexual Exploitation and is an international movement dedicated to Sexual Abuse, known as the ‘Lanzarote national and global action to end online child Convention’, which extends to cover all sexual exploitation (OCSE). Throughout this possible kinds of sexual offences against report we have adopted the following terms children, including the sexual abuse of a child, and abbreviations: exploitation of children through prostitution, grooming and corruption of children through CSEA: Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse exposure to sexual content, and activities (variously referred to by organisations as and offences related to child abuse material. CSAE and CSE) is a form of child sexual The Convention covers sexual abuse abuse that occurs when an individual or group within the child’s family, or ‘circle of trust’, takes advantage of an imbalance of power to as well as acts carried out for commercial coerce, manipulate or deceive a child or young or profitmaking purposes. The Lanzarote person under the age of 18 into sexual activity. Convention sets forth the following six The victim may have been sexually exploited criminal offences: even if the sexual activity appears consensual. Child sexual exploitation does not always • Article 18: Sexual abuse involve physical contact; it can occur through • Article 19: Child prostitution use of technology. 1 • Article 20: Child pornography* [referred to in this report as Child Sexual Abuse Material] • Article 21: Participation of a child in pornographic performances • Article 22: Corruption of children • Article 23: Solicitation of children for sexual purposes (also known as ‘online grooming’). 4 WeProtect Global Alliance – Global Threat Assessment 2019 CSAM: While UN agencies and other We have also used the following terms to international institutions describe indecent define different hosting arrangements for images and videos of children as ‘child online services: pornography’, following the Interagency Terminology and Semantics Project completed • the Surface Web is the portion of the in June 2016, the WPGA believes the web readily available to the general public phrase ‘child sexual abuse material’ (CSAM) and searchable with standard web search accurately captures the heinous nature of engines sexual violence and exploitation of children • the Deep Web is the portion whose while protecting the dignity of victims. contents are not indexed by standard web Global North and Global South: search engines and includes many common To distinguish between differing levels of wealth uses such as webmail, online banking, and development amongst member countries, and subscription services. Content can be in this report we have used the term ‘Global located and accessed by a direct URL or North’ for the G8 countries, the United States, IP address, and may require password or Canada, all member states of the European other security access beyond the public Union, Israel, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, website page as well as Australia, New Zealand and four • the Dark Web (also referred to as the Dark of the five permanent members of the United Net) is a disputed term, but is understood Nations Security Council, excluding China. by most authorities, and within this report, The ‘Global South’ is made up of Africa, Latin as a layer of information and pages that you America, the Middle East and developing Asia. can only get access to through so-called It includes three of the four newly advanced ‘overlay networks’ (such as Virtual Private economies of the BRIC countries (excluding Networks (VPN) and peer-to-peer (P2P) file Russia), which are Brazil, India and China. sharing networks), which obscure public This report uses the terms offender and access. Users need special software to perpetrator interchangeably to denote those access the Dark Web because a lot of it is who commit online child sexual exploitation encrypted, and most Dark Web pages are and abuse. hosted anonymously. WeProtect Global Alliance – Global Threat Assessment 2019 5 02 Aims of the Global Threat Assessment The inaugural Global Threat Assessment This year’s report has been commissioned with (GTA) was published in February 2018 the assistance and expertise of the WePROTECT and launched at the 2030 Agenda Global Alliance board members and sets out to for Children: End Violence Solutions build on the wide-reaching success and