ABSTRACT

Interviews were conducted with 168 child exploitation experts within 26 local, state, and federal task forces, law enforcement, and private victimoriented organizations (United States Sentencing Commission [USSC], 2012). Among respondents, 96% reported an increased threat over the past 10 years caused by child pornography; approximately half of those attributed the increase to growing technological sophistication. Two-thirds of responding child exploitation experts reported that the Internet has increased the quantity of and ease of access to child pornography. Half of respondents also credited larger collections of exploitative material to increased data storage capability and Internet speed. However, renewed attention is being paid to traditional distribution methods that cannot be detected by technology.