Creating an internet hostile to child abuse material – Evidence and action

Warning messages as a situational crime prevention strategy for child sexual abuse material online have been called for over a decade. A growing number of deployments have occurred, and the evidence base is growing. However, large tech firms are still reticent to publicly share about the volume of warnings displayed or the effectiveness of dissuading users from attempting to access the content.

This presentation will provide a bird’s eye view of the empirical evidence to date, including five studies undertaken by the University of Tasmania, which include three experiments undertaken targeting adults in Australia, the reThink project in the United Kingdom and a study involving 16-18 year old Australian adolescents. The presentation will also discuss two initiatives being undertaken to work with industry partners to deploy messages at scale – Project Intercept in the United Kingdom by the Lucy Faithful Foundation, and the new CSAM Deterrence Messaging Centre with Jesuit Social Services who operate StopItNow in Australia.

Online deterrence campaigns and messaging are vital to creating an Internet that is hostile to CSAM, persuading prospective offenders from attempting to access the content as early as possible within an offending trajectory, and lowering the overall market for CSAM online. In addition to deterrence themed messages, warning messages with therapeutic messages have also been can also been demonstrated to be effective, and there is growing evidence for their value with victims and bystanders.