Child porn victims getting younger - Internal Affairs

File photo / Martin Sykes

Children as young as a few months old are being targeted by New Zealand's child pornography offenders, as they continue to seek even younger victims.

According to the Department of Internal affairs, which prosecute child pornography cases, the average age of a victim is just five years old compared with 13 to 15 years old in the 1980s.

The average age of offenders has risen from between 27 and 30 to people in their early 40s.

Internal Affairs Censorship Compliance Unit manager Steve O'Brien said the material is becoming more violent and the abuse of very young children more frequent.

"What's really disturbing is that victims are getting younger - a lot of what we're getting now features children from a few months to five years old."

He said the material produced in the 1980s when victims were much older, tried to show the act was "almost consensual".

"But now it's pretty horrible that anything goes. A lot of children in these images are clearly in distress and it's very obvious the material has got a great deal more violent," said Mr O'Brien.

Even after 20 years on the job, Mr O'Brien said he is still disgusted by the images he has seen.

"Some people say we must get immune to it all, but we don't. I think once I do it's time to leave the job," he said.

At least 310 New Zealanders have been convicted for supplying objectionable material over the internet in the past 13 years, including 39 prosecutions by Internal Affairs in the 11 months to November last year.

Internal Affairs Censorship Compliance Unit works in collaboration with customs, police and international enforcement agencies, including Interpol.

With a number of New Zealand cases arising from information gathered overseas, Mr O'Brien said there was a huge international drive to pass on intelligence and catch offenders.

"Countries are becoming much more active in pursuing individuals and identifying children involved," Mr O'Brien said.

"If you trade or possess objectionable material you will be caught. There are no two ways about it, it's just a matter of time really."

In 2005, maximum penalties increased from a fine and the seizure and destruction of computers to five years' jail for possession of objectionable material and 10 years for distribution.

Since then, more than half of the convictions have resulted in incarceration, including jail time or home detention. The longest jail term given to a child pornography trader in New Zealand was to Stephen John Laing in 2008 who was sentenced to five years imprisonment.

Laing collected and distributed images of babies and toddlers being raped and tortured. Despite being caught and convicted on numerous occassions, and jailed in 2005, he continued to reoffend. While on bail for previous offending, more images were discovered on his laptop, resulting in his most recent conviction.

Although recent research shows the average child porn offender to be a white male, studying or working in IT, Auckland psychologist Nathan Gaunt said there is no typical offender.

"It's a wide and diverse range of people from all strata of society. They come from all walks of life - but in saying that, I've only heard of a couple of women," Mr Gaunt said.

Mr Gaunt, who treats people with issues relating to the internet, pornography and sexuality believes the problem in New Zealand will only get worse.

"The problem will continue to grow as more people get access to material online and it's getting easier to get hold of.

"In terms of dealing with it, we really can only rely on people seeking help."

Although Mr O'Brien said this type of crime has a high incidence of reoffending, as was the case with Laing, Mr Gaunt said it has been shown that with treatment and intervention, the relapse rate will decrease.

"It can be compulsive behaviour so relapse is often high but research has shown help can change that - it can be reduced to a very low percentage."

He said the challenge is to make offenders see the reality of what they are participating in.

"A lot of people are distanced from that so it's a challenge to make them understand the true impacts - they're real children and it is sexual abuse."