ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND DETECTION OF CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE MATERIAL ON THE DARK WEB: LEGAL AND ETHICAL CONCERNS

AUTHOR – S MEHA PRIYADHARSHINI, STUDENT AT SCHOOL OF EXCELLENCE IN LAW, CHENNAI

BEST CITATION – S MEHA PRIYADHARSHINI,ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND DETECTION OF CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE MATERIAL ON THE DARK WEB: LEGAL AND ETHICAL CONCERNS, INDIAN JOURNAL OF LEGAL REVIEW (IJLR), 6 (9) OF 2026, PG. 103-110, APIS – 3920 – 0001 & ISSN – 2583-2344. DOI – https://doi.org/10.65393/IJLRV6I911

ABSTRACT :

The spread of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) has greatly grown due to the dark web’s and encrypted digital platforms’ explosive expansion, posing major problems for law enforcement organisations around the globe. In response, machine learning, picture recognition, predictive analytics, and automated surveillance systems have made artificial intelligence (AI) a crucial technological tool for identifying, tracking down, and stopping online child exploitation. In addition to critically examining the ethical and legal issues of AI-driven surveillance methods, this study looks at how AI can help fight CSAM on the dark web.

The Information Technology Act of 2000, the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act of 2012 (POCSO), and pertinent international documents like the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime and the Convention on the Rights of the Child are evaluated in this paper. In view of Justice K. S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India, it dig deeper into constitutional issues of privacy, proportionality, algorithmic bias, and accountability. The study comes to the conclusion that while AI improves efforts to detect cybercrime and protect children, strong legal protections, judicial supervision, transparency, and ethical governance are necessary to strike a balance between child safety and fundamental rights and digital freedoms.