We assess child sexual abuse material according to the levels detailed in the Sentencing Council’s Sexual Offences Definitive Guideline. The outline of the different categories of child sexual abuse material are:
Category A: Images involving penetrative sexual activity; images involving sexual activity with an animal, or sadism. Category B: Images involving non-penetrative sexual activity. Category C: Other indecent images not falling within categories A or B.Where Category B material was seen, the children were typically rubbing genitals (categorised as masturbation) using their hands/fingers or, less often, another object, such as a pen or hairbrush.
There were 356 Category A, 'self-generated' images or videos of 3–6-year-olds hashed this year. Most of the Category A material involved children penetrating themselves, or another child.
The idea that a 3–6-year-old child has unsupervised access to an internet enabled device with camera will be a shock to many people, however, the fact that young children are easily manipulated by predators will be no surprise.
While children grow up, it is quite normal for there to be an element of sexual experimentation and body-curiosity; that is not what we find in these 'self-generated' images and videos of child sexual abuse. To be clear, the term 'self-generated' does not mean that the child is instigating the creation of this sexual content themselves, instead they are being groomed, coerced and in some cases blackmailed into engaging in sexual behiour. They are never to blame for the creation or existence of this imagery.
This is, of course, particularly the case for the age group we are looking closer at in this study. 3-6-year-old children are sexually naive and would not normally be aware of the possibility of this type of sexual behiour without someone else telling them or showing them what to do. They are easily manipulated and are therefore an easy target for predators who are looking to exploit them.