What is CSAM?

CSAM stands for child sexual abuse material. It depicts or is connected to the sexual abuse or exploitation of a child. This term is used to describe photos, screenshots, altered images, videos, livestreams, or any other content – including AI generated or manipulated content – which shows the sexual abuse or exploitation of a minor.

Using “child pornography” wrongly suggests a comparison to adult pornography. Children cannot consent to sexual exploitation, and images of abuse are not entertainment, expression, or consensual sexual content. Depending on the country you live in, the phrase “child pornography” may still appear in laws, court documents, or older public guidance, but it is no longer used by activists and professionals in child protection.

“Child sexual abuse material” or “CSAM” is the preferred term because it better reflects the abuse depicted and the trauma caused. It keeps the focus where it belongs: on the child who was harmed. It also recognizes that the harm can continue each time the material is viewed, traded, stored, or distributed. Victims may experience ongoing trauma when images are shared and viewed by others.

Unfortunately, it is not yet illegal in all countries to possess child sexual abuse material. In countries or jurisdictions with strong legislative protections, possessing CSAM is a crime, regardless of intent to distribute it. In jurisdictions with weaker laws only the creation or distribution of child sexual abuse material is illegal. This is dangerous for children as it means some perpetrators are not held accountable.

AI-generated and “deepfake” CSAM is one of the biggest and fastest-moving gaps in global legislation, and in many places around the world it is not yet illegal. Laws written before AI existed often only cover real photographs or videos of real children, leaving synthetic or digitally altered content in a legal grey area.

Comprehensive CSAM laws should explicitly criminalize "technology-facilitated" offenses to close this gap, because AI-generated abuse material causes real harm. AI-generated materials are created using photos of real children. AI-generated CSAM is not a “victimless crime.”

For example, it can depict abuse of a real child whose face is replaced with another child, creating a complex web in which one child’s abuse remains untraceable while another child faces sexual extortion. Just like human-created CSAM, AI-generated CSAM can be used to groom or extort victims. It floods reporting systems, slowing down the identification of real, ongoing abuse.

It refers to CSAM offenses that specifically account for how technology is used to create, alter, store, or circulate child sexual abuse material – including AI-generated or digitally manipulated content. Laws that don't address this fall behind as technology evolves. This gap is becoming urgent fast: reports of AI-generated child sexual abuse material rose 1,325% in a single year, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

If you accidentally encounter suspected CSAM, do not save it, forward it, post it, or investigate it yourself. If possible, leave the page, preserve only basic contextual information such as the platform, username, date, and how you found it, then report it through the appropriate channel.

Don't download it, share it, or search for more – even briefly possessing or seeking out this material is a crime in most countries. Instead:

Report it immediately to your national reporting hotline (such as the Internet Watch Foundation in the UK, NCMEC's CyberTipline in the US, or your local equivalent)

Report it to the platform where you found it –  most apps and websites have a reporting tool for this exact purpose

Note the web address (URL) rather than saving the content itself, so you can report it without keeping a copy

Don't feel you need to be certain. Trained analysts review every report and determine whether it's illegal – your job is just to flag it

Seek help if needed. Resources are available for children, young people, and adults.

If products and platforms aren’t designed from the ground up with safety in mind, parents and schools have a nearly impossible task ahead of them. It is everyone’s responsibility to keep kids safe, but many of the most important opportunities to improve safety are within tech companies’ control, and it’s the role of regulators to provide oversight. Tech companies and those that regulate them should hear directly from people who have experienced harm, and develop safety by design.

Software developers and technology platforms should embed safety into the design of new products, through measures such as age verification, preventing image sharing, and blocking algorithms that suggest child profiles to adult users. Engaging with and listening to survivors and others with lived experience and expertise in online harm is vital to addressing risks, seeing the gaps that exist, and making changes so the online experience is a safe one.

The Brave Movement calls on all governments to adopt legislation that defines and criminalizes technology-facilitated child sexual abuse material (CSAM) offenses, including possession, and to require Internet Service Providers to report suspected CSAM.

National educational curricula should mandate comprehensive, age-appropriate sexuality and reproductive health education that covers online safety and the risks of sexual violence through digital technologies.

Look up your country to learn what it has done on these and other actions to protect children in the Out of the Shadows Index.

Parents, caregivers and educators should look for patterns in behavior. Some signs can include:

- A child becomes secretive about a device, app, game, or online contact.

- An unknown person gives gifts, money, digital items, rides, or special attention.

- The child uses sexual language that seems unusual for their age.

- A contact encourages the child to hide conversations from parents or teachers.

- The child is anxious, withdrawn, unusually defensive, or afraid of losing access to a person or platform.

- Someone asks for images, threatens exposure, or pressures the child to move to encrypted or private apps.

Respond calmly. Children often stay silent because they fear punishment, embarrassment, or not being believed. A calm response makes it more likely they will share enough information for adults to help.