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that anything had occurred. All the children’s accounts were fragmentary, and the childrenshowed great difficulty in talking about their contact with the suspected perpetrator. Theyoften said that they did not remember what had happened; we do not know whetherthis meant that they did not have any memory of the incidents or if it was too difficultto put in words. Nevertheless, it became apparent that what the children least “wanted toremember”, the most unpleasant or abusive activities, and those that were probably themost shameful and guilt ridden had to do with the photography. It was shown that themore interviews the children took part in, the more they talked. It is as if that they firstneeded to “sort out the memories which emerged” and only later could put into wordswhat had happened” (Svedin and Back, 2003).Since the Second World Congress we have continued to see an expansion in the availabilityof technology and its continued abuse through the production of abuse images and text.While it is difficult to disentangle the harms posed to children by a variety of sexuallyabusive and exploitative practices, it is important to note that abusive images, onceuploaded onto the Internet, cannot be removed. This highlights the consequent needsfor specific therapeutic help for these children which addresses the challenges posed bydisclosure, the loss of control by the child, and the need for heightened sensitivity withregard to their awareness of image dissemination.3.2.2 Working with children abused through abusive images on the InternetThis research, and our practice experience to date, clearly has implications for the recoveryof children sexually exploited through their involvement in the production of Internetabuse images and for those professionals wishing to assist them. As noted above, to date,there is a general lack of expertise and experience amongst professionals wishing to meetthe needs of children abused and exploited in this way. A recent German study suggestedthat many professionals feel both helpless about their ability to understand the needs ofsuch children and at times are part of a ‘conspiracy of silence’ in their unwillingness to askquestions (von Weiler, 2008). It is going to be necessary for police officers, social welfareworkers and child professionals to re-evaluate their working practices in the light of whatwe have learnt. Palmer (2005) suggested that there are three key areas which need tobe addressed: managing the discovery/disclosure process and the investigative interviewof the child, assessment of the recovery needs for the child, and the nature and contentof the ensuing intervention programmes. We need to rethink how we approach childvictims of abusive images once they have been identified and their whereabouts discovered.Connected to Söderström’s work (Söderström, 2006), it is necessary to reiterate that theimpact of disclosure on child victims should never be underestimated and that when theyare informed that their images have been discovered the children feel impotent because50|Child Pornography and Sexual Exploitation of Children Online
they will have had no control over the disclosure process – they have not been able tochoose when to disclose, what to disclose, how to disclose and to whom they want todisclose. In some cases, the child victims are so acclimatised to their situation that they seewhat is happening to them as ‘normal’ and reject any assistance. One implication of this isthat more thought needs to be given to the timing and necessity of investigative interviews.In these situations the police have first hand evidence of what has occurred ‘objectively’to the child and need to tailor their interviews to specific information they may need toknow rather than expecting the child to relate what occurred: the discussion above on thesilencing of children who are subjects of abusive images would contend that they would getlittle information from the child other than that suggested/prompted by the interviewer.Thus, to improve our forensic and investigative practice we need to address the followingquestions• Is it always necessary, for evidential purposes, to interview children made the subjectsof abusive images?• In what circumstances might it not be necessary?• Might we need to interview the child for other purposes?• When would we do this and why?• How do we need to change the way we assist children whose abuse has been thesubject of photography, disclose what has happened to them?The traumatic effects of sexual abuse, per se, are mentioned above and may also apply tochildren made the subjects of abusive images. However, four new significant impacts enterthe equation when sexual exploitation in the form of photography and possible distributionof images is part of the victimisation and these should be taken into account when assessingthe children’s assistance needs: they are the impotence felt by the child because of thedisclosure process; the shame and humiliation of ‘being seen to let it happen’; the personalresponsibility felt by the child, and the serious issue of the non-resolution of the abuse.Children are confronted by the knowledge that the images can never be destroyed andthat they may continue to be viewed and used by many thousands of people. The age of thechild at the time of the production of the abuse images may have some relevance regardingrecovery. Where the child photographed is pubescent, when an adult, she or he wouldprobably still be identifiable from these images. It may be that when images are taken ofvery young children, the radical physical changes that take place as a result of growth andphysical development offer at least some protection from future identification when suchchildren reach adulthood.Cognitive behavioural therapy is frequently the base of the therapeutic approach usedby practitioners when working with children who have been sexually abused. Such anapproach may be used together with other therapies such as play, art and behaviouralChild Pornography and Sexual Exploitation of Children Online |51
Page 5 and 6:
Child Pornography and SexualExploit
Page 7 and 8: 6.1.5 Media co-operation 956.1.6 Ev
Page 9 and 10: Executive SummaryÜ This thematic p
Page 11 and 12: importance for children who are sam
Page 13 and 14: Actions to be achieved by 2013Toget
Page 15 and 16: Positive advances were also noted,
Page 17 and 18: 2. Adult perpetrators of abuse2.1 C
Page 19 and 20: 2 (c) defined child pornography as,
Page 21 and 22: Taylor, 2002). In part, this relate
Page 23 and 24: Level 7: Explicit Sexual Activity.I
Page 25 and 26: and carefree the child seems to be,
Page 29 and 30: 2.3 The Internet sex offender, the
Page 31 and 32: e criminalised before the offender
Page 33 and 34: Non-secure collector: This person p
Page 35 and 36: This section examines the potential
Page 37 and 38: about sexually abusive practices an
Page 39 and 40: Activity Number PercentagePhysical
Page 41 and 42: searched for files on Gnutella are
Page 43 and 44: for a minimum of several months, wi
Page 45 and 46: develop a risk assessment that will
Page 47 and 48: 3. Child victims of abuse via the n
Page 49 and 50: that a more conservative estimate w
Page 51 and 52: States need to demonstrate investme
Page 53 and 54: we investigate such cases and how w
Page 55 and 56: Table 5: Disclosure of abuse throug
Page 57: Silbert (1989) made reference to th
Page 61 and 62: 3.3 Children persuaded and coerced
Page 63 and 64: all crimes in which the victim thou
Page 65 and 66: situation have reported to one of t
Page 67 and 68: programmed to make them difficult t
Page 69 and 70: disorders, for young offenders with
Page 71 and 72: ealising how widely they could be c
Page 73 and 74: contexts, be seen as a consequence
Page 75 and 76: some people they connect with onlin
Page 77 and 78: Two studies by Lwin et al. (2008) l
Page 79 and 80: perhaps reaching the same conclusio
Page 81 and 82: 4.5.2 Young people accessing child
Page 83 and 84: Some abusers intent on grooming you
Page 85 and 86: or young person’s experience of b
Page 87 and 88: for different psychosocial problems
Page 89 and 90: A recent study from Ukraine demonst
Page 91 and 92: paper, such as online abuse where t
Page 93 and 94: definition in Article 20 - Offences
Page 95 and 96: • Which is a visual or audio repr
Page 97 and 98: i. The display of the material by a
Page 99 and 100: sex offending, this would certainly
Page 101 and 102: the vast majority who met someone o
Page 103 and 104: 6.1.6 Evaluation of impactFew infor
Page 105 and 106: most countries. However, such image
Page 107 and 108: of online child sexual abuse conten
Page 109 and 110:
gambling). Based on research commis
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7. RecommendationsIn preparation of
Page 113 and 114:
Endnotes1Dr. Ethel Quayle, COPINE R
Page 115 and 116:
Bensimon, P. The role of pornograph
Page 117 and 118:
Flood, M. Exposure to pornography a
Page 119 and 120:
Joyce, E. and Kraut, R. Predicting
Page 121 and 122:
Mitchell, K.J., Finkelhor, D. and W
Page 123 and 124:
Shukan Bunshun. Yoji Rape Bon ga Ba
Page 125:
Wolak, J., Finkelhor, D., Mitchell,
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