Getting the picture: Understanding the harms done to children made subjects of sexual abuse images on the internet

The purpose of this paper is to present the findings of a research study that explored the ways in which clinical therapists and child welfare workers in Ontario, Canada understand the harms done to children in abuse images distributed in cyberspace and the ways in which this understanding is integrated into investigation, assessment and treatment practices.  Children who are made the subjects of sexual abuse images online have not only endured sexual abuse offline, their lives have been transformed by the permanent images of their abuse online; images that cannot be retrieved or controlled and that continue to circulate in cyberspace forever.  The harms done to children in abuse images online are exacerbated by the impact of being photographed during the abuse. To add to this complexity is the potential non-resolution of the sexual abuse experience for those children who must live with the knowledge that images of their abuse are in perpetual circulation in cyberspace forever and may be accessed online for anyone to see at any given time.  The implications for the child victims in online abuse images can be devastating, yet understanding of the phenomenon is limited. This paper examines the intersection of child sexual abuse and cyberspace and the ways in which current policies and practices in children’s mental health and child welfare inform response to children whose abuse images appear online.  Little research has examined the implications for children made the subjects of sexual abuse images distributed on the Internet. This paper addresses this gap by exploring new assessment and treatment targets that the phenomenon demands be added to existing child sexual abuse treatment programs and child protection investigations.  A contemporary ecological model for conceptualizing the issues is presented.  A children’s rights perspective provides an overarching framework within which these ideas are explored.