Framework for a Single Global Repository of Child Abuse Materials

Against the tide of a huge amount of data, law enforcement agencies barely manage to focus on undiscovered child abuse materials (CAMs) to identify victims, abusers, and crime scenes. Currently, to alleviate this burden to some extent, there are international and national repositories of CAMs in place, such as Interpol's International Child Sexual Exploitation Database (ICSE DB), NCMEC's Child Recognition and Identification System (CRIS), and the UK's Child Abuse Image Database (CAID). This article introduced these global, regional, and national repositories and other related transnational initiatives comprehensively and also critiques the current trend of setting up more repositories and additional initiatives at local and regional levels. Later, the author elaborates on a plan for a single global repository governed by an international organization. Despite a significant decrease in the costs for a country to be actively involved in the fight against online child sexual abuse and emergence of new possibilities for more effective prevention strategies and investigational methods, such an idea of global centralization might face insurmountable opposition from current stakeholders, particularly because of organizational concerns and technological challenges. Many different organizations, well aware that the struggle against online child sexual abuse must become more concerted on a global scale, have come together to produce timely and appropriate global responses since 1996. In terms of policy making, legal amendments, raising awareness, and public‐private collaborations, these efforts have yielded invaluable and unprecedented outputs, particularly compared to other areas of crime fighting.