An Exploratory Analysis of Online Adult Content Sharing In Pakistan Through Social Media

Abstract

Sharing adult content online has always been difficult to regulate for the global community. An increase in criminal activity has coincided with the adoption and use of information and communication technologies (ICTs). Recent web search pattern shows a sharp rise in demand for explicit / adult content. According to estimates, up to 90% or more of people between the ages of 12 and 18 have access to the Internet. Greater accessibility to internet results in a rise in young people seeking out porn and the exposures to pedophiles increase. This then has a detrimental effect on their mating development. Therefore, there is a need to analyze the adult content sharing through social media in Pakistan. An exploratory analysis in Pakistan can provide useful information for combating the increasing rate in the child abuse and exploitations. It can also be helpful in identifying the pedophile/offender of the crime. The data regarding sharing of adult content material is gathered from NCMEC, an international nonprofit organization working with the law enforcement agencies to end this crime. When a user shares any adult content using social media an automated Tipline report is generated by the respective platform and sent to the concerned country. 55740 Tiplines of different social media platforms which are reported from various regions of Pakistan are used in this study. Tipline reports are very detailed and can go up to several pages. NCMEC therefore provides the data in excel format too. Originally the data consisted of 17 variables, out of which only 8 are used. The variables used are 1-Report ID, 2-Electronic Service Provider (social media platforms e.g., Facebook), 3-Industrial Classification (type of data shared), 4-File Relevance Value (frequency of reported ID), 5-City, 6-Region, 7-IP/ISP (internet providers e.g. Zong, Telenor etc.), 8-File size (Mb). The remaining variables such as Mobile number, IP address etc., were omitted due to privacy concerns. Analysis has shown that 82% of people in each region (province) are sharing lascivious exhibition content, 90% of which is through Facebook. The average file size (mb) of adult content shared in all the regions is about the same. 79% of 15 user IDs in the Tipline are reported only a couple of times. While the frequency of user IDs reported between 11-335 times are 0.55%. Highest reports are from Karachi (28.07%), Lahore (23.75%) and Islamabad (15.78%), while Zong (26.11) and Jazz (25.01) are the most used networks for it. There is also no correlation found between the amount of data shared and the number of times it is reported.