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With continual advances in Internet capability the child pornography market is experiencing a boom in demand and supply. Attempts to reduce the market challenge legislators, law enforcement agencies, practitioners and researchers alike – due in large part to the decentralised and global nature of the Internet. Much research has focused on frequent users of child pornography and whether such behaviour is interrelated with child sexual assaults. This article instead draws attention to onset, the first deliberate viewing of child pornography. It presents the results of a three-month study of a global Peer-to-Peer network, isoHunt. Analysis of the site’s Top 300 search terms indicated that child pornography is consistently shared. Risk factors for onset are discussed, including the potential normalisation of child pornography among Internet subcultures. Strategies are discussed to encourage subcultures to inhibit child pornography use and to increase understanding of the harms associated with such material. Implications for legal systems, policy and research are explored.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	child pornography, P2P, subcultures, internet
Research Division:	Law and Legal Studies
Research Group:	Public law
Research Field:	Public law not elsewhere classified
Objective Division:	Law, Politics and Community Services
Objective Group:	Justice and the law
Objective Field:	Justice and the law not elsewhere classified
UTAS Author:	Prichard, J (Professor Jeremy Prichard)
UTAS Author:	Spiranovic, C (Dr Caroline Spiranovic)
ID Code:	75032
Year Published:	2011
Web of Science® Times Cited:	32
Deposited By:	Law
Deposited On:	2012-01-03
Last Modified:	2017-11-21
Downloads:	6 View Download Statistics