Sex offenders & the Net - questions & answers

John McCarthy is the Director of Safe Network, Auckland's sexual offender treatment programme.  John has answered some questions you may have about sex offending and communication technologies.

Q.  How does sexual offending occur within the Internet environment?

A. David Finkelhor (1994) proposed the following 4 factors as being required in order for the sexual abuse of a child to occur:

• A predisposition towards sexual contact with children.

• The ability to overcome their own inhibitions.

• The ability to overcome the victim's resistance to the abuse.

• The opportunity to offend.

Each of these factors is worth some separate examination in relation to the Internet.

Q. Does viewing child pornography on the Internet create a predisposition in people towards sexually abusing children?

A. A confusing picture emerges from the literature and research over the past 30 years. No clear causal link between looking at child pornography and sexually offending against a child has been demonstrated. It's a chicken and egg situation, and no-one quite knows which comes first - the sexual interest in children or viewing child pornography. My view is that sexual offending against children is such a complex phenomenon that it's hard to conceive of it stemming from a single causal factor like viewing pornography.

What is known about pornography and sexual offending is that:

• Some sexual offenders, e.g. those who rape adults, are reported to use more violent, sadistic extreme pornography than the norm.

• Some men look at child pornography and never sexually assault a child.

• Children as young as 10 in our programmes have been sexually aggressive or coercive with other children. They don't report high pornography use.

• There is some evidence that adolescent sexual abusers use less pornography than their peers.

Q. To what extent does child pornography help sex offenders overcome their inhibitions?

A. While no causal link has been proven, there seems no doubt that, if someone has a predisposition towards sexually abusing a child, viewing child pornography will significantly increase their chances of sexually assaulting a child.

In order for someone to sexually abuse a child, they must first overcome their own sense of values, morals or conscience. Offenders distort reality and deny, minimise, or justify their behaviour. Making excuses enables the offender to abuse and to keep abusing. Pornography can assist this process in at least two ways:

1. Pornography, especially if it includes images of children, acts like 'petrol on a fire' for sex offenders. Many offenders use pornography prior to their offending and, once aroused, are more likely to offend.

2. Pornography can affect offenders' attitudes towards things such as:

   • Appropriate sexual behaviour

   • Women's sexual experiences

   • Children's sexual development

   • Consent

   • Sexual enjoyment

Offenders might also become involved in chatrooms, some of which have a focus on having sex with children. Participation in the these chatrooms acts as both a social network for child sex offenders and a powerful reinforcement of the attitudes which enable child sexual offenders to offend.

Q. How do offenders use the Internet to create opportunities to overcome the resistance of their victim and offend?

A. Offenders sometimes show pornography to children prior to their offending as a means of 'grooming' or introducing sexual behaviour to the child. This is much more powerful if those images involve children and adults engaged in sexual activity. Such images are far more readily available through the Internet than they have historically been through more traditional sources of pornography.

Offenders sometimes join chatrooms and pose as peers or caring sympathetic listeners to distressed children. Offenders tell us that they abuse children who are both available and vulnerable. Chatrooms provide a vehicle whereby offenders may find 'available', vulnerable children.

Whereas previously, child sex offenders were only able to groom a limited number of children, Internet chatrooms enable offenders to approach many children at the same time. It means their likelihood of finding a child to abuse has increased.

Q. Should I be worried about my own behaviour?

A. Those who look at legal pornography may end up in sites they never intended to look at. While some people will look at child pornography and never directly sexually offend against a child, this is definitely risky behaviour because:

• It is illegal and could get you into trouble.

• It is harmful to someone else.

• You may be developing the beliefs, attitudes and behaviours of a paedophile.

Remember:

• Every image of child pornography is a picture of child abuse occurring.

• It is not part of children's normal sexual development to have sex with an adult.

• No child wants to be sexually assaulted by an adult.

• Child sexual abuse harms children - sometimes forever.

• If you look at, download, possess, or trade in child pornography you are acting illegally on the Internet and you are supporting the sexual abuse of children.

You should seek professional help if:

• You are looking for, or accessing, child pornography on the Internet.

• You are swapping child pornography with someone over the Internet.

• You are sexually aroused to images of children or to stories about adults having sexual contact with children.

• You have been thinking about having sex with a child.

• You are an adult who has tried to make contact with children in chatrooms, by email or via text messaging for sexual purposes.

• You are worried about what you have been looking at or doing on the Internet, or you may be worried that you may be becoming addicted.

• You are worried about any other aspect of your Internet use.

• You are worried about any aspect of your sexual behaviour or thinking.

• You are worried that your Internet use has adversely changed your relationships with people around you.