The National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction

y offenders. Increased home computer storage capacity has enabled many child pornographyoffenders to store huge collections of images (some containing 1 million) and numerous videofiles (often 1 hour in length). 11 For example, more than 15,000 stored videos were found onvarious media and the offender’s computer in Philadelphia in 2007. Holding vast libraries ofchild pornography material enables offenders to share more illicit images and videos of greatervariety than was possible in past years.ii. Research relating to the number of computers or computer users engagingin Peer-to-Peer file sharing of child pornography.The Act specifically directs the Department to evaluate data relating to the overall magnitude ofchild pornography trafficking including the number of computers with which offenders viewchild pornography or engage in peer-to-peer file sharing. 12 At this time, there is no method foridentifying every individual that views or facilitates the production or sharing of childpornography. Similarly, at this time, it is not possible to provide a definitive number ofcomputers or computer users engaged in peer-to-peer file sharing of child pornography becausethere is no surveillance mechanism to accomplish this task. However, law enforcement agenciesare taking steps to address this issue by employing a variety of investigative techniques that canidentify the number of unique Internet Protocol (IP) addresses linked to computers sharingknown files containing child pornographic material on particular networks. In addition, the lawenforcement agencies have begun to identify and catalog child pornography images. Byidentifying IP addresses and cataloging unique images, the law enforcement agencies can helpgauge the volume of child pornography that is being distributed online.Two programs currently used by law enforcement agencies to identify IP addresses and catalogimages include: Operation Fairplay, supported by the Wyoming Division of CriminalInvestigations and the Palm Beach County (FL) State’s Attorney Office and OperationRoundUp, developed by the University of Massachusetts under a grant from the NationalInstitute of Justice. Since Operation Fairplay’s inception in 2006 and Operation Roundup’sinception in late 2009, the two programs have identified over 20 million different IP addressesoffering child pornography files (pictures, videos) on a Peer-to-Peer file-sharing network.Further, the programs have identified thousand of unique images. For example, OperationFairplay has a “watch list” of 170,000 child pornography files. 13 Operation RoundUp currentlyhas a watch list of 120,000 child pornography files. In both of these tools, the files on the “watchlist” are those the developers (law enforcement officers) deem to represent some of the “worst”(movies and photographs of the most violent assaults, with the youngest victims) of the childpornography images they have seen. 1411See Appendix B, U.S. v. Merz. 12See the Act at Section 101(c)(16)(a-c). 13 These files are documented images of known child pornography14 Operation Fairplay includes data for FY 2008 and data for the period January through June 2009. The number ofunique IP addresses logged by law enforcement for Operation RoundUp includes data for a shorter period, becauseit is a new application only recently released for use by law enforcement.12