Child sexual offenders have always been quick to adapt technological advances, such as photography and film for the purposes of exploiting children. The move of child exploitation material (CEM) to the Internet has enabled them to form online communities which allow easier access to CEM, recruiting co offenders and business partners, as well as validating their deviant behavior amongst other offenders.

Despite the established harm inherent within child exploitation imagery and distribution online, current attempts to limit such content have been largely unsuccessful.

Dark Crawler is a tool used by search-engines to automatically navigate the Internet and collect information about each website and webpage which can be used to seek out specific content, such as child exploitation material...