Introduction

The previous chapter discussed youth-involved sexual imagery, with an emphasis on concerns about older children and the distinction between consensual and coercive practices. In this chapter we turn to examine the situation of young children. They are seldom the subject of research on sexual violence, yet the online-facilitated sexual abuse of these children is known to exist, primarily through studies that focus on the detection of child abuse images online and law enforcement reports. In the past, child sexual abuse has been described as a hidden phenomenon that is made visible through a child's disclosure or evidence in and on their bodies (Wattam, 1992). OCSV experienced by young children is still hidden in this traditional sense but at the same time highly visible through images that are both detached from the child yet traumatically attached through their creation and continued circulation throughout childhood.

None of the surveys retrieved in the rapid evidence assessment made reference to the online sexual abuse of children under the age of nine. The majority of studies researched children aged 11 upwards, leading to the impression that most victims of OCSV are aged between 14 and 17 years of age. Data about children under nine only emerge as a byproduct of data collected on wider samples of children or cases. A small minority have been identified through case file analysis of arrest data (Leonard, 2010; Mitchell et al, 2011a; Wells et al, 2012). However, most of what can be known about OCSV and younger children is through analyses of images harvested online (IWF, 2014, 2016; 2018) and analyses of law enforcement and NGO image databases (ECPAT International and Interpol, 2018; Quayle et al, 2018; Seto et al, 2018).

These sources suggest that OCSV involving young children is different from that experienced by those who are older. It more often involves parents, carers and family members, it is legally and developmentally impossible for children to consent to it and images and videos of the abuse are more likely to be trafficked (in other words, traded for financial or other gain). By young children, we refer here to girls and boys who are prepubescent, that is, generally under the age of ten (Blanchard, 2013).