[Governance] New article in Internet Policy Review: When child safety laws lose sight of real children

[Jeremy Malcolm]

New from me in Internet Policy Review: the Drawing the Line Watchlist
<https://drawingthelineprinciples.org/> shows that creators and
distributors of real child sexual abuse material (CSAM) are increasingly
being let off the hook as police and prosecutors divert resources away from
prosecuting them — and toward policing fictional content instead.

The consequences are measurable. UK FOIA data shows that prosecutions for
real child-sexual-abuse images have fallen by nearly 60% since 2016–17,
while prosecutions involving fictional content have risen and now account
for roughly 40% of all image offences.

The evidence does not support claims that fictional material “normalises”
abuse. Emerging research finds no association between exposure to fictional
sexual material and risk of offending, and treating it the same as CSAM is
an unequivocal violation of international human-rights law.

The Watchlist calls for a categorical reset in child-safety law — starting
with reserving the term CSAM exclusively for material documenting actual
abuse — to refocus enforcement on protecting real children rather than
expanding surveillance and censorship by stealth.

📄 Read the article:
https://policyreview.info/articles/news/drawing-the-line-child-safety-laws/2058

-- 
Jeremy Malcolm
https://jere.my
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