An analysis of a survey for child sexual abuse material seekers on Tor (N = 11,470)

We analyse the responses of users who searched for child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on Tor web search engines.

We analyse responses from all participants who answered our 'Help us to help you' survey from 5 May 2021 to 28 February 2023 (N = 11,470) and compare the tendencies and habits of people who searched for CSAM.

The 'Help us to help you' survey consists of 32 questions, takes about 15 to 20 minutes to complete, and participants receive no compensation.

We ask CSAM users about their thoughts, feelings, and actions related to their use of CSAM so that we can build a cognitive behavioural therapy-based anonymous rehabilitation programme for CSAM users. For this study, we analysed responses to 12 survey questions. All 12 questions are single-answer questions, i.e., the respondent is asked to pick one option from a predetermined list of answer options.

We may potentially be targeting a specific population due to the fact that the demographics of Tor users are probably not representative of all internet users. The participants in the sample are Tor users who (i) conducted a search for CSAM and (ii) opted to complete the survey; thus, they constitute a convenience sample.

We analysed the data with both univariate and bivariate methods. The analyses in the main part of the text mainly describe the population seeking CSAM material on the Tor network, and these results provide a point of comparison to our other results. The bivariate analyses, on the other hand, deepen the picture of the factors associated with help-seeking for CSAM use. In these analyses, the outcome variable is based on help-seeking, whereas we selected the independent variables to measure both the intensity of CSAM use and the effects of CSAM use on the users themselves.