Child Sexual Abuse Material

The production, possession, distribution or accessing of visual material depicting the sexual abuse or sexual exploitation of a child, an offense recognized in the law and by advocacy organizations as a documented record of a real child's abuse rather than a victimless act, since its production requires the underlying abuse and its continued circulation causes ongoing harm to the person depicted. It is criminalized as a standalone offense in nearly every country and under international instruments including the Council of Europe's Lanzarote Convention, and is treated as legally distinct from the underlying act of physical or contact abuse of a child, since a person may be prosecuted for possessing or distributing such material without having directly abused the child depicted. Law enforcement agencies increasingly use image-hashing and cross-border cooperation, including through organizations such as INTERPOL, to identify victims and remove such material from circulation.