A leading digital forensics firm has called for urgent national reform to tackle the growing challenges of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) in the UK.
Stoke-on-Trent-based SYTECH, which provides digital forensics services to law enforcement, has published a white paper titled Digital Forensics in the UK: A Call for National Reform. The report warns that rising volumes of material, increasing technological complexity and the emergence of AI-generated CSAM are outstripping the capacity of current systems, legislation and guidance.
Drawing on workshops with digital forensic practitioners, investigators, offender managers and criminal justice representatives, the paper highlights a lack of national frameworks, inconsistent thresholds and a workforce under pressure. It warns that reliance on professional discretion and regional interpretation is compromising both fairness and the ability to safeguard children effectively.
The report recommends establishing a nationally mandated steering group to set consistent approaches to digital forensic practice in CSAM investigations, led by experts with practical experience in digital forensic units (DFUs) and forensic service providers (FSPs).
The proposed group would bring together the Home Office, National Police Chiefs’ Council leadership, DFUs, FSPs, investigators, the Crown Prosecution Service, judiciary, offender management teams, and technical experts. Its remit would include creating a national framework for categorisation, accessibility assessment, risk-based triage pathways and safely integrating AI into forensic workflows.
The paper also stresses the need to safeguard the wellbeing of the workforce, advocating specialist categorisation teams supported by clinical and organisational structures to manage the increasing volume and graphic nature of material safely.
Daren Greener, SYTECH managing director, said: “The digital forensic response to CSAM offending is no longer simply under pressure, it is operating beyond the limits of its intended design. Without decisive national action, the inconsistencies, backlogs and risks identified and highlighted in the white paper will continue to escalate, and with them the danger of failing those we are entrusted to protect will surge.
“Practitioners are sending a clear message – there is an urgent need for coherent national guidance, a structured risk-based framework, modernised legislation and a sustainable workforce model. Above all, a unified strategy that reflects the realities of modern offending and equips us to respond effectively to those who pose the greatest risk to children is required. It is now time for national leadership to match the urgency experienced every day by those working within digital forensics.”
SYTECH has also called for greater investment in early intervention to tackle ‘gateway crimes’ such as stalking, warning that they often precede more serious offending. Figures from the Office for National Statistics Crime Survey for England and Wales for the year ending March 2025 show around 2.9 per cent of adults – roughly 1.4 million people – experienced stalking in the previous year.
Daren said: “The latest ONS data makes clear that stalking remains a widespread and deeply damaging crime, and too often it marks the beginning of a pattern that escalates into more serious offending. If we are serious about breaking that trajectory, we must be able to identify and respond to the earliest digital signs of harmful behaviour.
“With stronger resources, better tools and more capacity, we can intervene sooner, protect victims more effectively and ensure that those responsible are held to account before further harm occurs.”
