Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse as Organized Crime: Towards a New International Legal Framework
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.23969/litigasi.v27i1.43221Keywords:
Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Child Sexual Abuse Materials, Transnational Organized Crime, Darknet, International Legal FrameworksAbstract
Online child sexual exploitation and abuse (OCSEA) has increasingly become a serious form of transnational organized crime and a grave violation of children's fundamental rights under international law. This study examines how OCSEA has evolved from localized, offline abuse into complex online operations involving darknet platforms, structured criminal networks, specialized roles, cryptocurrency-based transactions, and coordinated activity across national borders. Using a doctrinal legal method, supported by comparative jurisdictional analysis and selected law enforcement data, this research assesses whether existing international legal frameworks are adequate to address OCSEA as organized crime. The study finds that current instruments, including UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime, the Lanzarote Convention, and relevant ASEAN frameworks, still contain significant legal and institutional weaknesses. These weaknesses include inconsistent definitions, fragmented jurisdictional authority, insufficiently harmonized criminal standards, and enforcement gaps that are often exploited by organized criminal networks. The analysis further shows that OCSEA meets the core characteristics of transnational organized crime, as offenders in different jurisdictions cooperate in producing, distributing, and profiting from child sexual abuse material through advanced digital infrastructure. Based on these findings, this study argues for the development of a a binding global legal framework that standardizes criminal definitions, recognizes universal jurisdiction, strengthens cross-border cooperation, and establishes effective international monitoring mechanisms. The research contributes theoretically by reframing OCSEA within the paradigm of transnational organized crime, and normatively by proposing a more coherent direction for international legal reform.
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