When public health officials first announced stay-at-home guidelines during the pandemic, many predicted that boredom, isolation, and stress will result in people spending a greater amount of time online.
Dr. Michael Seto and his colleagues wondered if it would lead to an increase of child sexual abuse and exploitation.
Seto is the Director of the Forensic Mental Health Research Unit at The Royal’s Institute of Mental Health Research (IMHR) affiliated with the University of Ottawa, as well as the Director of Forensic Rehabilitation Research in the Integrated Forensic Program of the Royal Ottawa Health Care Group. He has published extensively on pedophilia, online offending, sexual offending, and frequently presents on these topics at scientific meetings and professional workshops.
Seto says tip lines for reporting sexual exploitation of children such as Cybertip.ca in Canada and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in the U.S. are getting more calls and the number of visitors to self-help sites has gone up “dramatically” since March.
The Oak Foundation, a private foundation based in Geneva, Switzerland, that has invested in prevention of abuse and other social justice initiatives, approached Seto and his colleague, Dr. Elizabeth Letourneau at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, about forming a response to this surge in demand for help.
They proposed the idea of a “perpetration prevention portal,” a clearinghouse of online resources for parents and families as well as people who are concerned about their own sexual thoughts or behaviours involving children.
He says expecting people to do a Google search and then trying to determine if a resource is credible or useful is asking a lot of someone who needs help.
“These resources are sometimes hard to find,” explains Seto. “And to navigate them requires a certain amount of know-how.”
The portal was online in a matter of weeks. The result is a highly curated list of free phone or online resources screened by experts for credibility, usefulness, and ease-of-access. Many are available in multiple languages.
The portal is a way to provide information for people who know they need help but are afraid to ask for it.
Shame and stigma make it challenging to find support at the best of times. The first step in Canada is talking openly to a family doctor, in order to get a specialist referral, but many won’t.
“Cost for private therapy is also a barrier, especially right now,” adds Seto.
Some of the websites listed include Stop it Now, which provides education and other resources to prevent child sexual abuse, and Troubled Desire, which offers support for people who are concerned about their sexual feelings for children and early adolescents.
How many people seek out a website like the perpetration prevention portal?
“I think it’s a bigger number than many people might think,” says Seto.
He describes a person who is aware they are attracted to children but is usually able to monitor themselves and avoid situations that might get them into trouble.
“But during this pandemic, when stress levels are up, social isolation is up, boredom is up, that same person who has been able to self-manage might be tempted to look for certain kinds of illegal content,” explains Seto. “That’s the person that I’m hoping is going to find this site.”
Although the prevention portal is designed to provide resources for people when they need it, it will also help researchers gain some valuable insights. Seto and his colleagues are looking at what resources are accessed the most frequently. They’ll also be working with their partners to compare web traffic from this time last year.
So far it looks like there is a significant uptick in usage.
Seto’s goal for the prevention portal is to prevent child sexual abuse, but also reduce barriers for people who are distressed or worried about the risk they might pose and need help.
“That person who would feel normally like they’re managing effectively – that person might not be doing so well right now. And I don’t want that person to get into trouble and I don’t want them to do things that are harmful to children.”
The web portal is hosted by the Moore Centre for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse, which is part of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.