be both recorded and distributed solely using mobile telephones or devices. Similarly, by using ICTs, cyberstalkers, harassers and bullies can abuse their victims with less effort and lower risk of detection.93 Child sex tourists can make use of cloud computing to store images or videos of their encounters, avoiding the risks associated with physically transporting child sexual abuse material through airports and other checkpoints. Moreover, mobile telephone technology connects organizers, victims and consumers of child sexual exploitation and abuse, thus reducing the need for producers and distributors to be physically present at transactions, which in turn serves to better insulate them from detection.94 Whereas encryption measures were previously not widespread among producers, distributors and consumers of child sexual abuse material—due to fears of being inadvertently locked out of their collections—many offenders now use both local and remote storage services that include built-in encryption technology to evade detection and complicate the work of law enforcement agencies.95 Providers and consumers of child sexual abuse material may also have access to new technologies that reduce permanent digital evidence. Applications such as “SnapChat” and “Wickr”, for example, enable users to distribute temporary images that disappear within seconds following receipt.96 Increased levels of harm for victims The use of new ICTs in the abuse and exploitation of children has also served to increase levels of harm suffered by victims. Technologies such as peer-to-peer file sharing have escalated the distribution of child sexual abuse material to such an extent that collections consisting of millions of images are commonplace. Cloud-computing technology similarly en­ables private access to storage that can host ­massive collections at a very low cost.97 93 U.S. Department of Justice, 2010. Pp. 25-26; see also CEOP, 2009. Strategic Assessment 2008-2009. Available at: http://ceop. police.uk/Documents/strategic_overview_2008-09.pdf 94 Shared Hope International, 2007. 95 Bose, A., 2013. Commentary at the Informal Expert Group Meeting on the Effects of Information and Communication Technologies on the Abuse and Exploitation of Children. Vienna. September 23, 2013 through September 26, 2013. 96 Henn, S., 2013. Teens Dig Digital Privacy if SnapChat is any Indication. Available at http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/12/10/249731334/ teens-dig-digital-privacy-if-snapchat-is-any-indication. 97 Bose, A., 2013. With regard to contact sexual abuse, experts have found that a “layering of harms” can occur when images or video of abuse have been distributed online. The contact sexual abuse constitutes the first layer of harm, and the production of an image or video—which exacerbates the negative effects of the abuse—represents a separate, second layer of harm. Each subsequent viewing or distribution of that material serves to re-victimize and thus further exacerbate the psychological damage to the abused.98 Ever-increasing levels of violence and a continuously decreasing age of victims in child sexual abuse material have also been observed. Between 2011 and 2012, it is estimated that there was a 70 per cent increase in child sexual abuse material focused on girls under the age of 10, with abuse material involving toddlers or babies not being uncommon.99 Moreover, a significant number of online forums and channels openly advertise videos of brutal sexual assault.100 The increasingly large amounts of readily available online child sexual abuse material also serve to desensitize viewers, resulting in a demand for ever more extreme material.101 In comparative research on persons possessing child sexual abuse material in the United States between 2000 and 2005, the 2005 group of child sexual abuse material-users had larger quantities of videos than still images, as well as more materials depicting victims under the age of three. The same research noted that in 2005, more consumers used peer-to-peer file sharing than had done so in 2000. In fact, the use of peer-topeer in the context of child sexual abuse material has been Hamilton, M. Amicus Brief of the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children in Support of Respondent Amy Unknown in Doyle Randall Paroline v. Amy Unknown and United States, U.S. Supreme Court Case No. 12-8561. Available at http:// sol-reform.com/12-8561-bsac-APSAC.pdf; see also Wolak, J., Finkelhor, D., Mitchell, K., 2011. “Child Pornography Possessors: Trends in Offender Case Characteristics”, Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment. 23:22-42 (Noting the increase in Child Pornography possessors increased collection of materials depicting children under years between 2000 and 2006). 99 CEOP, 2013; Bose, A., 2013. Commentary at the Informal Expert Group Meeting on the Effects of Information and Communication Technologies on the Abuse and Exploitation of Children. Vienna. September 23, 2013 through September 26, 2013. 100 See e.g. Timberg, C., 2013., How violent porn site operators disappear behind Internet privacy protections. The Washington Post. December 6, 2013. Available at http://www.washingtonpost.com/ business/technology/how-violent-porn-sites-manage-to-hideinformation-that-should-be-public/2013/12/06/e0861378-377311e3-ae46-e4248e75c8ea_story.html. 101 Beech, A., et al. 2008. “The Internet and Child Sexual Offending: A Criminological Review”, Aggression and Violent Behaviour, 13:216-228. 98 II. Evaluating the problem  19