On Child Sex Abuse Presence in BitTorrent Networks

The wide spread of Peer-to-Peer networks makes multimedia files available to users all around the world. However, Peer-to-Peer networks are often used to spread illegal material, while keeping the source of the data and the acquiring users anonymous. In this paper we analyze activity measurements in the BitTorrent network and examine child sex abuse activity through three major BitTorrent web portals. We detect and characterize child sex abuse material in the network, and also analyze different aspects of the abusers activity. We hope our results will help law enforcement teams put more focus on the BitTorrent network and ease the detection of new illicit material.