CSAM Perpetrator Research Report: Findings from a Survey of CSAM Perpetrators on Digital Platform Use and Design

Protect Children released findings from a large-scale anonymous survey of over 20,000 individuals recruited while actively searching for CSAM terms on the Ahmia dark web search engine, with the survey available in 24 languages and ethical approval granted by the Tampere Region Ethics Committee. The Tell Me More About Tech study provides rare operational intelligence on perpetrator behaviour across the digital ecosystem, documenting the specific platforms, technologies and online environments used to search for, view and share child sexual abuse material. Notably, 65 percent of respondents had seen pornography by age 18 and 59 percent had encountered CSAM, with many reporting accidental first exposure, and perpetrators reported accessing material across multiple mainstream and dark web platforms rather than isolating activity to a single service.

Offender migration across platforms and the use of encrypted or pseudonymous channels to evade detection underscores the limits of siloed, platform-specific content moderation. Detection modules within Guardii, a world-leading AI online-safety platform, operate across Instagram, Snapchat, Discord, Roblox and other services simultaneously, identifying distribution requests, coercive solicitation and escalation patterns in direct messages regardless of where a conversation begins. By flagging behavioural indicators of CSAM trading or grooming activity rather than waiting for material to be shared, the system surfaces high-risk actors to investigators before they successfully reach a child, and routes verified threats immediately to the appropriate authority for interdiction.