Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Recent law enforcement investigations and media reports highlight the rise of “Com networks’: loosely organised online communities that intertwine child sexual abuse material (CSAM), sextortion, coercion, animal cruelty, self-harm, extremist rhetoric, and violent misogyny. These groups illustrate a troubling hybridisation of harms, blurring distinctions between sexual offending and extremist violence. While CSAM offending has traditionally been viewed as evidence of sexual motivation or paedophilic interest, within Com networks it often functions as coercion, a marker of transgression, and a signal of belonging in communities organised around cruelty and grievance. Drawing on plenary discussions at the 2025 NOTA International Conference, this commentary integrates insights from research, law enforcement, and clinical practice. It argues that Com networks should be understood both as a novel digital phenomenon and as part of a continuum in which violence, extremism, and sexual abuse converge. Finally, it outlines key research and practice priorities for prevention and intervention.PRACTICE IMPACT STATEMENT This study advances understanding of Com networks, challenging conventional distinctions between sexual offending, cybercrime, and radicalisation. It shows how these hybrid communities groom and coerce adolescents, and how motivations extend beyond sexual interest to include grievance, status-seeking, and ideological drivers. The research identifies key gaps in current explanatory frameworks and intervention models. It highlights the need for integrated, interdisciplinary approaches, combining criminological, psychological, feminist, and digital culture perspectives, to inform prevention, risk assessment, and treatment, and to support holistic strategies for safeguarding vulnerable young people.
Source: Journal of Sexual Aggression
Authors: Ethel Quayle, Stuart Allardyce, Marcella Leonard, Bethany Jennings, Robert Richardson
Institutions: University of Edinburgh, The Lucy Faithfull Foundation
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W7125138478