Avatar-Mediated Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation: Understanding its Manifestations, Impact on Children, and Legal Safeguards

Abstract

This paper examines avatar-mediated child sexual abuse and exploitation (AMCSAE) as an emerging form of child sexual abuse and exploitation (CSAE). Drawing on interdisciplinary legal research and doctrinal legal research, the article explores how AMCSAE materializes through interaction- and form-based risks, and how mediated embodiment intensifies its psychological, physical, relational, and economic harms. Situating AMCSAE within the broader CSAE continuum, it conceptualizes the phenomenon as a specific form of technology-facilitated CSAE and proposes a working definition that highlights the mediating role of avatars. The analysis further demonstrates how AMCSAE violates children’s rights under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and the Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography (OPSC). By clarifying risks, harms, and legal implications, the article provides a foundation for further research towards mitigating AMCSAE.