48 articles
1995 Okinawa rape incident
1995 Okinawa rape incident (沖縄米兵少女暴行事件): September 1995 gang rape of a 12-year-old Okinawan girl by three U.S. servicemen, sparking 85,000-strong anti-base protests, a SOFA custody dispute, a Clinton apology, and the Futenma return promise.
Age of consent
Age of consent: minimum legal age for agreeing to sexual activity, also called statutory rape law. Historically puberty-based, raised in England from 13 to 16 in 1885; today mostly 16–18, with close-in-age exceptions worldwide.
Boystown (website)
Boystown (BoysTown) was a darknet child sexual abuse material forum active June 2019 to April 2021, with over 400,000 users and one million posts; shut down by Germany's BKA and ZIT in a Europol-coordinated operation, distinct from the Chicago neighborhood and Boys Town charity.
Brother Paul's Children's Mission
Brother Paul's Children's Mission, also called Brother Paul's Nature Camp, was a 1975 Michigan charity front for a child pornography ring on North Fox Island run by Francis Shelden, Gerald Richards, Dyer Grossman, and Adam Starchild; exposed in 1976.
Child erotica
Child erotica is non-pornographic material relating to children used for sexual purposes; it is broader than child pornography and is defined by use rather than content.
Child pornography
Child pornography, now termed child sexual abuse material (CSAM), is visual depictions of sexually explicit conduct involving minors. Covers terminology, global legislation, AI-generated imagery, detection, and prevention.
Child prostitution
Child prostitution, now termed exploitation of children in/for prostitution, is the use of a child in sexual activities for remuneration; a crime under the CRC Optional Protocol and ILO Convention 182, increasingly technology-facilitated.
Child sex tourism
Child sex tourism, also called sexual exploitation of children in travel and tourism (SECTT), is travel by domestic or international offenders to sexually exploit children; ECPAT, founded 1990 in Chiang Mai, leads the response.
Child sexual abuse
Child sexual abuse: involvement of a child in sexual activity without informed consent, by someone in trust or power. Also CSA. Types, global prevalence (1 in 5 women, 1 in 7 men self-report), measurement tools, consequences, and prevention.
Child-on-child sexual abuse
Child-on-child sexual abuse (COCSA), also called peer-on-peer abuse, is sexual abuse in which one minor abuses another, typically where an imbalance of age, development, or power prevents informed consent.
Childs Play (website)
Childs Play (also Child's Play) was a darknet child sexual abuse forum on Tor, active April 2016 to September 2017, founded by Canadian Benjamin Faulkner and covertly run by Australia's Task Force Argos for 11 months before shutdown.
Christopher Paul Neil
Christopher Paul Neil, known as Mr Swirl, is a Canadian former English teacher identified through INTERPOL's first global public appeal and arrested in Thailand in 2007.
CVLT (organization)
CVLT (pronounced "cult") was a Discord-based neo-Nazi, nihilistic child exploitation group and precursor to 764 within The Com; leaders including Rohan Rane and Kaleb Merritt were prosecuted in France and the United States.
Epstein files
The Epstein files, also called the Jeffrey Epstein files, are Justice Department and court records about Jeffrey Epstein, released publicly from 2025 under the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
Franklin child prostitution ring allegations
Franklin child prostitution ring allegations: claims from 1988 Omaha, Nebraska that credit union manager Lawrence King Jr. ran a child sex trafficking ring; two 1990 grand juries called them a hoax, King was convicted of $39 million fraud.
Ghislaine Maxwell
Ghislaine Maxwell is a British former socialite convicted in 2021 of sex trafficking and related offenses involving Jeffrey Epstein. Sentenced to 20 years, she unsuccessfully challenged the conviction on appeal.
Grooming gangs scandal
The UK grooming gangs scandal: group-based child sexual exploitation in towns such as Rotherham, Rochdale and Oldham, the 2014 Jay report, the 2025 Casey audit, and the national inquiry chaired by Baroness Anne Longfield from 2026.
Hebephilia
Hebephilia is sexual interest in pubescent children (about ages 11-14), between pedophilia and ephebophilia. Proposed for DSM-5 as pedohebephilia but rejected; absent from DSM-5 and ICD-11.
Jailbait images
Jailbait images: sexually suggestive but non-nude photos of minors, often legal yet exploitative; best known as Reddit's r/jailbait subreddit run by Violentacrez, banned October 2011 after CNN coverage and a nude-image solicitation incident.
Jeffrey Epstein
Jeffrey Epstein, American financier, subject of the 2005 Palm Beach abuse investigation, the 2008 Florida plea under a federal non-prosecution agreement, the 2019 SDNY sex-trafficking indictment, and his 2019 jail death ruled suicide.
Jeffrey Epstein's Palm Beach mansion
Jeffrey Epstein's Palm Beach mansion, 358 El Brillo Way, was his Florida residence bought in 1990 for $2.5 million, the site of the 2005 abuse allegations, sold for $18.5 million in 2021 and demolished.
Jimmy Savile sexual abuse scandal
The Jimmy Savile sexual abuse scandal: posthumous revelations from the 2012 ITV Exposure documentary that BBC presenter Jimmy Savile was a prolific sexual abuser, triggering Operation Yewtree, the Pollard and Dame Janet Smith reports, and NHS investigations.
Kenneth Parnell
Kenneth Eugene Parnell (1931-2008), American child molester and kidnapper who abducted Steven Stayner in Merced, California in 1972, held him seven years as "Dennis Parnell," kidnapped Timmy White in 1980, and died in prison after a three-strikes conviction.
Kidflix
Kidflix (KidFlix), darknet child sexual abuse material streaming platform created in 2021, 1.8 million users 2022–2025, ~91,000 videos; shut down 11 March 2025 in Europol's Operation Stream: 1,393 suspects identified, 79 arrested, 39 children protected.
Kidwelly sex cult
Kidwelly sex cult: occult-inspired group led by Colin Batley on Clos yr Onnen, Kidwelly, Wales. Convicted 2011 of 35 offences including 11 rapes; indeterminate sentence, minimum 11 years; Parole Board open-prison recommendation in 2025.
Legality of child pornography
Legality of child pornography, now often called child sexual abuse material (CSAM): criminalized in most jurisdictions under the 2000 UN Optional Protocol (178 parties) and national statutes in the US, UK, Canada, Germany and the EU, with current reforms on AI-generated and self-generated images.
Mary Kay Letourneau
Mary Kay Letourneau (born Mary Katherine Schmitz, 1962-2020), American teacher convicted of second-degree child rape of 12-year-old student Vili Fualaau in 1997; later married him in 2005 after prison; died of colon cancer.
Megan's Law
Megan's Law: US sex offender registration and community notification laws named for Megan Kanka, murdered in New Jersey in 1994. New Jersey enacted it in 1994; a 1996 federal law amended the Wetterling Act; SORNA (2006) later replaced it.
Moe incest case
The Moe incest case is an Australian criminal case from Moe, Victoria, in which a man was sentenced in 2010 to over 22 years in prison for decades of incest against his daughter.
Mr Cruel
Mr Cruel is an unidentified man who attacked girls in Melbourne homes in the late 1980s and is the chief suspect in Karmein Chan's 1991 murder.