The project -Understanding and improving help-seeking by people at risk of perpetrating online child sexual exploitation and abuse, will explore interventions that aim to reach those people who are at risk of offending, before they offend.
The Centre of Research and Education in Forensic Psychology at the University of Kent is a group of leading psychologists working on offending behaviour, including sexual exploitation and abuse. In partnership with the Lucy Faithfull Foundation and researchers based in South Africa, Mexico, the US and UK, the project will shed light on the psychological processes through which people at risk of online sexual exploitation and abuse may instead seek professional support. In addition, the group will explore the efficacy and impact of prevention interventions targeting people engaging with online abuse. Overall, the project will ask a fundamental – and often overlooked – question: who seeks help for child sexual exploitation and abuse, and can we get more people to do so before committing a crime?
5 winners were awarded grants of between $20,000 and $250,00 for research that will expand knowledge of online CSEA and explore the most effective measures for preventing it.
This project will expand CORE FP’s existing model of psychological predicators of help-seeking for people at risk of offending, and examine how to amplify the psychological factors that support such help-seeking behaviours. At the same time, the project will also look into the psychological barriers that prevent help-seeking, and explore ways to weaken those barriers in the digital sphere.
Led by Dr Caoilte Ó Ciardha the project will explore the impact of interventions such as online messaging, that aim to deter offenders from perpetuating online child sexual abuse.
‘We asked when people search for material relating to online child sexual abuse online many platforms will now post a reminder that the search terms they are using or the webpage they are trying to access is associated with abusive material.’ Ó Ciardha explained ‘These messages often focus on the illegality of those materials, and sometimes encourage them to seek help (for example by linking to https://www.stopitnow.org.uk/). Our project will explore how we can funnel more people who search for these materials to these sources of help. To do this, we will test whether different messages can increase the likelihood that people will seek help.’
These sorts of interventions have a history of success but Ó Ciardha’s vision is that these interventions would increase numbers exponentially.
‘Splash pages are used to warn people that the page they have tried to access was used to host child sexual exploitation material. Where these have included contact details for sources of help, we know that some internet users have been diverted to these help-lines etc. However, these successful cases reflect only a small proportion of the millions of attempted visits to these web pages. If we can increase—even slightly—the number of people seeking help after seeing these types of messages, this may translate into thousands of people seeking help, and potentially avoiding offending.’
The vision is that the research will translate to tangible impact in the tech industry.
‘This research will directly impact on the tech industry by providing an evidence base for what works to divert people at risk of online sexual abuse toward obtaining professional help.’ This is therefore not just about stopping people from accessing child exploitation material in the moment on a given platform, but also about trying to link that person to resources that may prevent them from ever accessing this material via any medium. The research outcomes in the forms of the model of help-seeking behaviour and our findings on messaging to increase help-seeking will have value beyond the tech industry, particularly for those working in public health and those services offering help to people at risk of online sexual exploitation and abuse.’
The controversial nature of the research is not lost on Ó Ciardha.
‘The idea of helping this population may feel unpalatable to some people. However, doing so will help address the underlying motivation to offend and thus the motivation to circumvent the protections put in place by the tech industry and others.’
Discover more about The Tech Coalition Safe Online Research Fund Awards here and the Together to #ENDviolence initiative here.