A/HRC/31/34 thirds live in the developing world, where the number of Internet users has doubled in five years, from 974 million in 2009 to 1.9 billion in 2014. 2 14. The growth in connectivity has been accompanied by changes in the way in which users access the Internet. The penetration of sophisticated mobile technology means that many online activities are no longer being conducted via computers in fixed locations. When children use mobile technology, it becomes more difficult for parents or caregivers to monitor their online activity or to restrict, monitor or control what they access. 3 Furthermore, the growing population of children using the Internet opens up opportunities for perpetrators to connect with potential victims online. The greater availability of inexpensive mobile devices facilitates the production of child sexual abuse material, while the emergence of broadband has helped to facilitate the exchange of child sexual abuse materials, including files containing photographs, video and audio. Lastly, an increasing number of encryption tools and platforms afford different levels of anonymity to online child sex offenders, making it harder for the authorities to detect illegal conduct and to identify perpetrators online. 15. While the growth of the Internet has not in itself created the risk to children, it is increasingly one of the places where problems now arise. The opportunities that the Internet affords may amplify, complicate or heighten the potential impact of existing and evolving forms of violence, abuse and exploitation. B. Forms of sexual exploitation online 1. Sexual abuse material 16. The creation, publication and distribution of child sexual abuse material online are among the activities facilitated by new technologies that capture the most attention. Article 3 (1)(c) of the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography requires States to criminalize the production, distribution, dissemination, import, export, offer, sale or possession of child pornography. New technologies have, however, transformed what is actually intended by “possession”, given that the growth in Internet speed has made it no longer necessary to download and store images because they can be viewed online. 17. The scale of child abuse material on the Internet has reached an unprecedented level, with many individual offenders in possession of millions of such images and/or videos. There has also been a shift in the way material is traded, moving away from commercial sites to peer-to-peer networks, which facilitate evading filtering and other detection software and therefore reduce the risk of detection of those seeking and distributing child pornography (E/CN.15/2011/2, para. 15). Law enforcement operations against peer-to-peer sharing of files containing child sexual abuse images have identified millions of Internet protocol addresses offering child pornography.4 Also, the use of “cloud” services guarantees a degree of user anonymity when exchanging and storing child sexual abuse online, without any need to host these materials on personal devices. Furthermore, online virtual currencies are sometimes used to pay for child sexual abuse materials. Such currencies are often subject to less transparency, and allow users to evade measures taken 2 3 4 See ITU Facts and Figures: The World in 2015, available at www.itu.int/en/ITUD/Statistics/Pages/facts/default.aspx. UNICEF, Child Safety Online: Global challenges and strategies, December 2011, p. 4. United States Department of Justice, “The National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction”, August 2010. 5