E/CN.15/2014/CRP.1 Any criminal justice response to sexting acts may best focus on children who coerce the production of the material or who possess, use or distribute the material.127 In addition, any criminal justice response must be considered as only one component of a wider social and educational response that supports teachers, parents, industry, and children to address often unequal and coercive sexual pressures, making them visible, available for discussion and open to resolution.128 Broadcasting of live sex abuse As high speed Internet access, including mobile Internet, proliferates and becomes increasingly affordable, perpetrators can stream the sexual abuse of children in online live shows, making it harder to detect if it has not been captured or saved on a computer or mobile device. Through the use of "cyber-sex" dens, children can be sexually abused by an adult while images of the abuse are streamed live on the Internet, with access to the stream being commonly purchased via credit card. This form of child sexual abuse material requires only Internet connectivity, a computer with a built-in camera, a mobile phone or other mobile device with video functionality, or a detachable web-cam. The live show format enables remote viewers to feel connected to the sexual activity, particularly as they can simulate active participation in the abuse by, for instance, directing the conduct of the people featured. 129 Live images of abuse may also be recorded for future distribution in order to generate maximum profit. Victimization risk factors Risk factors represent circumstances that may increase the likelihood of child victimization for certain offences. Such factors may be external, relating to the child’s family and social environment, or concern characteristics or behaviour of the child victim himself or herself. Risk factors do not correspond to certainties, and are derived only retrospectively from observed associations between such factors and victimization outcomes across child cohorts. In particular, risk factors may be offset by protective factors that correspond to circumstances that decrease the likelihood of victimization, including through intervention in otherwise risky situations. Gender and sexual orientation Research indicates that girls account for the majority of victims of child abuse and exploitation, although boys are increasingly at risk as well.130 In a sample of nearly 250,000 images of child sexual abuse material submitted to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre in the United Kingdom between 2005 and 2009, four times as many images featured girls as compared to boys.131 More recent figures from the IWF show that up to 76 per cent of sexual abuse images on the internet featured girls in 2013, whilst 10 per cent featured boys and 9 per cent featured both genders.132 With respect to the commercial sexual abuse and exploitation of children, ILO estimates that 1.2 million children are trafficked per year and 1.8 million children are exploited annually in the global sex trade, of which about two-thirds are female. In cases of children abused and exploited in the travel and tourism industries, girls are again most frequently victimized.133 Increasing attention is paid, however, to male victims of child sexual exploitation. The United States Department of State 2008 Trafficking in Persons Report, for example, identified male victims as a topic of special import. Noting that both ILO and UNICEF have found that male victims make up only two percent of documented child victims of commercial sexual exploitation, the report suggested that male victimization might be more widespread than reported, __________________ 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 See in general Leary, M., 2007.; Leary, M., 2010. Ringrose, J., Gill, R., Livingstone, S., Harvey, L., 2012. P. 8. U.S. Department of State, 2007. P. 23; see also CEOP, 2013. Paragraphs 24, 33. See Cooper, S., Medical Analysis of Child Pornography. In S. Cooper et al. (eds.), 2005.Medical, Social and Legal Aspects of Child Sexual Exploitation. But see CEOP, 2013. Paragraph 29 (Observing a marked shift to fewer boy victims and more and younger girl victims in an analysis of an albeit small sample of recent offenses in the U.K.). Quayle, E., Jones, T., 2011. Sexualized Images of Children on the Internet. Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment 23:14. IWF, 2014. P. 6. ILO, 2002. Every Child Counts. New Global Estimates on Child Labour. V.14-03040 23