[elil17]

My thought is that many different stakeholders have reasons to focus on CSAM:

- Prosecutors want to go after it because it is much easier to prove than CSA.

- Authoritarians want to go after it because it gives them a chance to get things like ID checks accepted by the public.

- People who genuinely want to prevent CSA focus on it because a large amount of CSAM is made by serial abusers - so capturing producers can prevent future abuse. Additionally, they believe (with good reasons) that CSAM consumption is a gateway to CSA and CSAM production for many people. Further, finding CSAM can be a way to identify and rescue children from abusive situations.

- CSA survivors may advocate for it often feel traumatized not just by the abuse, but by the fact that people might be continuously viewing that abuse.

- Going after it winds up creating digital forensics specialists and task forces, which creates a special interest group within police departments which wants to continue focusing on CSAM but is not set up to do anything about CSA.

I would recommend the podcast Hunting Warhead to anyone interested in learning more about this.