Child sexual abuse material offenders: a systematic review of risk profiles, risk factors, and typologies published in Sexual Medicine Reviews
Guardii Analysis
A systematic literature review published in Sexual Medicine Reviews in December 2024 gathered evidence regarding detected CSAM offenders' characteristics and typologies, with a comprehensive search of databases EBSCO host, Web of Science and PubMed conducted in July 2024. The study provided an in-depth analysis of the typologies of CSAM offenders, identifying characteristics commonly present and drawing up a potential profile based on psychosocial risk factors including sociodemographic, environmental and psychological characteristics, trauma history, mental health condition, disruptive cognitions and pattern behaviours, as the production, distribution, sharing and use of child sexual abuse material continues to rise with the proliferation of the Internet.
Understanding offender typologies informs the threat patterns detection systems must recognise. Guardii's anti-CSAM detection module, including its capacity to identify AI-generated and deepfake material, operates at the point of contact, detecting harmful patterns in children's direct-message conversations in real time across platforms rather than reading every message. As a world-leading AI online-safety platform, Guardii reports the shape and seriousness of a conversation, surfaces a child in crisis to a parent, school or professional, and enables rapid escalation to the right authority, addressing the distribution and sharing vectors the research identifies as central to the proliferation of CSAM online.