A new survey on the internet’s role in child sexual abuse was released today by the Canadian Centre for Child Protection (CCCP).
The International Survivors’ Survey comes on the fifteenth anniversary of Cybertip.ca, which is operated by the CCCP, and received responses from 150 people who were sexually abused as children.
The results shed new light on the experiences of survivors of abuse, and Michelle DeLaune, Senior Vice President of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, hopes the findings can be used to improve the lives of victims.
“The unique anguish inflicted upon those depicted in child sexual abuse imagery had not been properly explored resulting in a tremendous gap in therapeutic services provided,” DeLaune said. “Now, survivor voices ring loud allowing us to learn from their experiences and better tailor our response.”
All of the survey’s respondents said their abuse had been recorded in photos or on video. Of the 150 individuals, 61 per cent said the recordings were shared online, while 38 per cent said they were uncertain whether or not recordings had been posted to the internet.
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Over two thirds of the participants said they were concerned about being recognized by someone who had seen recordings of the sexual abuse, and 30 people said they had been identified by someone who had seen images of their abuse.
In the majority of cases detailed by survivors, the abuse began before age four and involved more than one person abusing them.
Lianna McDonald, Executive Director of the CCCP, said in today’s internet landscape, there is a strong chance that child sexual abuse is also being recorded and shared online.
“This additional layer of trauma is unimaginable and can colour every aspect of their life,” McDonald said.
The CCCP announced a project attempting to combat the sharing of images from child sexual abuse cases online. Project Arachnid is a bot that detects child sexual abuse recordings so notices can be issued to website providers to encourage their removal.
In addition to the research on how to stop the sexual abuse of children and the subsequent spread of photos and videos online, the survey also aims to forecast how best to help survivors through therapy and obtaining justice in the criminal court system.
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