A Practitioner Survey Exploring the Value of Forensic Tools, AI, Filtering, & Safer Presentation for Investigating Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM)

University of New Haven / Digital Forensic Research Workshop

This survey investigates what value those investigating CSAM ascribe to the different tools and technologies they use in their work. Effective tools are crucial not only for detection but also for reducing the potential harm of being exposed to such material over long periods of time. The survey found that filtering technologies are more important than safe viewing technologies and that false positives are a bigger problem than false negatives. As far as resources are concerned there is still a lack of personnel, time, and money in the field. Furthermore, it was found that practitioners are still not up-to-date on data science and AI; something which should be improved in order to deal with the large amount of data that they face. The biggest need practitioners have which AI can help with is tools that automatically detect child nudity, age, and skin tones.