Treating Online Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adults

Abstract
This half-day workshop will discuss clinical 'best practices' and clinical strategies for working with children, adolescents, and young adults who have experienced technology-facilitated child sexual abuse and exploitation (CSEA). The internet and technology are increasingly implicated in sexual violence against children in ways that can be challenging for clinicians to understand and address.

Technology-facilitated CSEA includes in-person sexual abuse of a child or adolescent, where images and videos of that child’s sexual abuse are circulated online, as well as online sexual abuse between same-aged peers and online offenders who groom and threaten children using social media, gaming platforms, live stream, and other online services. Victims and survivors of technology-facilitated CSEA find it difficult to access mental health care that is attentive to the dynamics of online abuse. The aim of this workshop is to build the understanding and capability of attendees to provide responsive and informed mental health care to the growing population of online abuse survivors.

While the major focus of this workshop will be clinical strategies for working effectively with clients impacted by TF-CSEA, the workshop will include an overview of cutting-edge research on the scope and nature of the problem and unique impacts on child victims and adult survivors. The workshop will discuss screening and assessment of technology-facilitated CSEA and effective intervention methods for children, adolescents, and their families and caregivers. Presenters will highlight existing service gaps that present challenges for victims, survivors and their therapists with the aim of opening discussion about needed services. Key strategies and techniques for serving this population include safety planning, psychoeducation, and supporting clients to regulate the anxiety and shame they experience that is linked to the distribution of images and videos, and anticipation of future revictimization.

Survivors of technology-facilitated CSEA often have unique clinical needs that require more than one therapeutic approach to fully address. This workshop will demonstrate how the creative weaving of different therapeutic approaches can be used to address the wide-ranging needs of these clients, including issues with dissociation, identity, somatic complaints, relationships, safety, and other symptoms of complex trauma. Effective clinical work with survivors of TF-CSEA draws from established techniques such as EMDR, Internal Family Systems, Somatic Experiencing, Narrative Therapy, and Art Therapy to create tailored interventions, all of which emphasize a collaborative process designed to empower clients.

Attendees will leave the workshop with a firm grounding in research and best practice to support victims and survivors of technology-facilitated child sexual abuse and exploitation.