A Qualitative Study of How Israeli Arab Educational Counselors Handle Image-Based Sexual Abuse of Female Adolescents

Abstract

Image-based sexual abuse (IBSA) refers to the nonconsensual production, dissemination, or threat of dissemination of private sexual images of another. Arabs belong to a conservative society where the distribution of a nude photo constitutes a violation of the dignity of the family and may have serious consequences. Based on semistructured in-depth interviews, the present study examined how 32 Arab educational counselors in Israel handle IBSA. Findings suggest that counselors identified the victim as experiencing difficulties that allowed her to be harmed. Also, it was found that counselors were afraid it might harm the victims on the grounds of family honor. These findings indicate that it is necessary to find culturally sensitive solutions both for the prevention and treatment of this phenomenon.

Keywords

image-based sexual abuse cyberspace adolescents educational counselors Arab community

Introduction

Image-based sexual abuse (IBSA) refers to the nonconsensual creation of sexual images (or videos) of another, their distribution, or the threat of sharing (Mandau, 2021; Powell et al., 2019). The term covers phenomena such as revenge porn¹ (distribution or sharing of sexual images taken of the subject without permission to distribute them), sextortion (threat of dissemination of sexual images of the subject and extortion to force the victim to send additional sexual images, pay money, engage in sexual intercourse, or to prevent the victim from leaving a relationship). It can also involve “deepfaking” (modifying sexual images to portray another person, such as placing a person's face on another person's naked body; Mandau, 2021; McGlynn et al., 2017). Technology and social networks provide a convenient platform for the public distribution of this type of content and for sexual abuse without physical proximity to the victim (Huber, 2022).

As for IBSA's prevalence, a study of 5,245 adolescent girls in Norway found that 4.8% reported IBSA (Pedersen et al., 2022), however, not all the victims knew that their nude images were shared (Henry et al., 2019). Although IBSA is not uncommon, only a small number of adolescent victims opt to share the experience, report it, or seek help with it (Wittes et al., 2016; Wolak et al., 2018). As a result of underreporting, the phenomenon and the proper ways to treat victims are not well known.

Arab society is collectivist, traditional, and conservative (Hussain, 2020). The discussion of sexuality that takes place between parents and children in the Arab sector is very limited (Sinai & Shehade, 2019) and sex education programs are practically nonexistent in schools (Tahir, 2014), so Arab youths are exposed to all the content available online without receiving proper guidance on these subjects. Moreover, the sexual activities of young unmarried Arab women are considered taboo, and any transgression is followed by severe sanctions, including honor killing (Jabareen & Zlotnick, 2021). In this situation, the availability and accessibility of school counselors are of utmost importance because youths require guidance and support from significant adults with whom they can share their problems outside the family framework (Liddle, 2013). In Israel, school counselors play an important role and are responsible for students’ mental health. They treat individuals in times of crisis and need (Levkovich & Vigdor, 2021). They also play a significant role in promoting and implementing sex education programs. In Arab society, it is school counselors who are responsible for sex education and conveying knowledge on this subject, especially because of the lack of parental involvement, owing to the conservative character of this society (Sinai & Shehade, 2019).

The present study relies on the intersectional perspective (Krumer-Nevo & Komem, 2015) to demonstrate the complexity of handling IBSA of female Arab adolescents by Arab educational counselors, and explore how they perceive the phenomenon of IBSA and treat the victims, considering their gender, ethnicity, and multiple identities (Krane et al., 2000). The literature review begins with a brief description of adolescence in the digital age, including sexting and its possible risky consequences, and presents IBSA in adolescents. It then discusses the challenges of handling IBSA in female Israeli Arab adolescents.

Literature Review

Adolescence in the Digital Age

A significant portion of young people's social communication today takes place online (Lenhart et al., 2010). Adolescents report that digital media and social networks provide them with space for social interactions (Henry & Powell, 2016) and for various experiences with sexual orientation (Dolev-Cohen & Ricon, 2020). Adolescents perceive the Internet as an accessible medium that allows instant gratification and creates an illusion of privacy (Mubarak et al., 2014). The possibility of anonymity on the web creates a subjective sense of privacy (Maczewski, 2002; Suler, 2004). Furthermore, the lack of eye contact on the Internet, with users not seeing each other's facial expressions and reactions, lowers psychological barriers and causes faster personal exposure, a sense of freedom, openness, liberated self-expression, and increased sexuality (Suler, 2004). These characteristics of the Internet have made possible sexting (sending and receiving sexual correspondence that often includes fully or implicitly naked images) as a way of sexual expression and of experiencing sexuality, which is characteristic of adolescence (Dir et al., 2013; Dolev-Cohen & Ricon, 2020).

Sexting serves a variety of purposes, including romantic courtship, expression of trust of the other party, strengthening of social ties, and accumulating power and social popularity with peers (Cooper et al., 2016). It may or may not be part of a romantic couple relationship (Burén & Lunde, 2018). Exchanging sexting messages can occur by consent, as part of a mutual flirting process (Dir et al., 2013), but there are also situations where it is nonconsensual, the result of exerting pressure on one of the parties, involving coercion and nonconsensual distribution (Mandau, 2021; Ruvalcaba & Eaton, 2020; Wolak & Finkelhor, 2011).

IBSA in Adolescents

IBSA refers to the nonconsensual creation of sexual images (or videos) of another, their dissemination, or the threat of dissemination (Mandau, 2021; Powell et al., 2019). At times the images are distributed with the victim's name and personal details (Henry & Flynn, 2019; Uhl et al., 2018), as the technological means allow the wide distribution of content (Huber, 2022). From a feminist perspective, this phenomenon is part of a continuum of sexual violence directed at women, and it is often one of several forms of sexual harm inflicted upon the victim (McGlynn et al., 2017).

Studies indicate a significant incidence of online sexual assaults involving young people (e.g., Kopecký, 2017; Madigan et al., 2018), and it appears that victimization of adolescents significantly increases with their age (Gámez-Guadix et al., 2022). Moreover, often the victims do not know that their images are propagated online (Henry et al., 2019; Huber, 2022), therefore the prevalence of the phenomenon is liable to be higher than reported.

As far as the consequences of the harm are concerned, it is evident that the victims of IBSA, like those of sexual abuse of various types, suffer serious physical and psychological harm in the aftermath of IBSA, and some describe the experience they went through as rape or sexual assault (Huber, 2022; McGlynn et al., 2017). Despite the severe injury to the victim, the phenomenon suffers from under-reporting (Perren & Gutzwiller-Helfenfinger, 2012; Wolak et al., 2018). In the United States, about 17% of victims chose to seek the help of a school official, and only about 8% turned to the police (Patchin & Hinduja, 2020). The research literature offers several possible explanations for the underreporting of sexual abuse, including the hope to minimize the harms associated with IBSA by dismissing the experience (Powell et al., 2022), the age of the adolescents, feelings of shame and guilt about what happened, adolescents’ attitudes toward receiving help, and fear of further harm that may occur in case they share the information about the abuse, together with the belief that they cannot be helped (Tomczyk & Kopecký, 2016; Wolak et al., 2018). Moreover, blaming the victims who perceive themselves as responsible for their condition also delays reporting and seeking help (Dolev-Cohen et al., 2020).

Studies suggest that responses to nonconsensual image sharing are indicative of a double sexual standard, in which female IBSA victims are accused of losing their dignity, whereas male distributors are recognized for their masculinity, and their sexual experience is valued (Lippman & Campbell, 2014; Ricciardelli & Adorjan, 2019). IBSA exists in different societies and cultures, even those that are considered conservative, such as the Arab society in Israel. A survey concerning network vulnerability has found that 18% of youths in Arab society reported that a picture of them had been circulated on the Internet to harm them (The National Authority for Measurement and Evaluation - RAMA, 2016).

Sex and Sexuality in Arab Society in Israel

Arab society in Israel has been described as having a patriarchal collectivist character, with a set of rules that recognize the supremacy of the traditional man (Meler, 2017). Parents are stricter in controlling their daughters than their sons, and there is an expectation for daughters to follow the accepted social norms (Haj-Yahia, 2011). Sex is considered legitimate only if it is part of a marital relationship between a man and a woman (Abu-Baker, 2013; Ilkkaracan & Seral, 2000). In traditional Arab communities, extramarital affairs are considered a serious violation of the dignity of the partners in the sexual act and their families. In the case of such a violation, there may be “murder on the grounds of family honor” (Abu-Baker, 2013). For this reason, Arab families tend to be susceptible to “fadiha,” a scandal that damages their reputation in society (Abu-Baker, 2013). Women's social status is lower than men's (Jeries-Loulou, 2022), so when sexual acts occur outside of marriage, it is assumed that the woman is guilty, and she is often blamed for the harm. Moreover, there is a tendency to blame not only the victim herself, but also the victim's family, especially her mother, who is perceived as having failed to inculcate the expected norms in her home (Haj-Yahia & Sadan, 2008).

In many cases, there is a mechanism of silencing the abuse, so that sexual abuse is dealt with as an internal problem, to avoid harming the social status and dignity of other family members (Elias, 2019; Shalhoub-Kevorkian, 1999). These reactions may provoke feelings of guilt, shame, and loneliness, and exacerbate the youth's emotional distress (Elias et al., 2019; Gilligan & Akhtar, 2006). This can result in underreporting, especially in cases where adolescent girls are harmed, because of their fear of exposure and harm to the victim on the grounds of family honor (Elias et al., 2019; Welchman & Hossain, 2005).

Sexual discourse is considered a social taboo (Jabareen & Zlotnick, 2021) and as encouraging sex, therefore many parents are reluctant to provide sex education to their children (DeJong et al., 2005). These cultural attitudes also lead to a reduction in sex education in the Arab education system in Israel (Abu-Baker, 2013; Sinai & Shehade, 2019), therefore public discourse about sex in Arab society is extremely scarce (Cok & Gray, 2007). It is clear, however, that Arab adolescents in Israel have reported engaging in various types of physical and online sexual activities (Massad et al., 2014). In sum, the phenomenon of IBSA is common among young people, but it is not sufficiently discussed in the family or in the education system (Dolev-Cohen & Ricon, 2021). This is even more true in Arab society, where sex education is limited. Therefore, female counselors who are also subject to the conservative culture are not always aware of what happens socially in the online space. In their work with the students, the counselors experience moral and ideological dilemmas that they do not necessarily know how to address (Sinai & Shehade, 2019). Moreover, because of the taboo on the subject of sexuality in Arab society, open discourse on this subject, even by professionals, is liable to elicit criticism (Riad & Forden, 2021). Because of the cultural sensitivity and conservative attitude of Arab society, the discourse is limited, and studies dealing with sexual assault on the web are few. The present study investigates how professionals caring for minors cope with IBSA, from the perspective of the educational counselors in Arab society in charge of handling incidents of sexting and at the same time defusing the fadiha and the danger to the victim.

Method

The Research Paradigm

The qualitative method used in the study followed the phenomenological approach, which investigates phenomena from the point of view of the significance and meanings that people attribute to them, affecting in turn the way the phenomena are experienced (Creswell & Poth, 2016). The focus on the individuals and the content that they decide to present or the meaning they attribute to a phenomenon at a particular moment enables us to investigate the phenomenon at the level of consciousness, without prejudice. Participants are given a license to describe the phenomenon from their subjective point of view, based on their personal experience, enabling the phenomenologist to understand the participant's first-person experience (Sokolowski, 2000). Reality is experienced as it is created in the interpersonal encounter (Spinelli, 2005). The present study attempted to enter into the world of school counselors, understand their experience as they encountered the young women who were victims of IBSA, and the authenticity with which they addressed the topic and treated the female students.

Research Instruments

Data were collected using semistructured in-depth interviews, which were conducted based on guidelines developed for the present study. The interview guidelines included three types of questions: descriptive questions, intended to elicit a description of events, situations, and places (“When did the event take place?” “Where did it take place?”); classification questions, designed to reveal and understand the criteria by which interviewees organized their knowledge (“Tell me about the victim”); and differentiating questions, intended to help distinguish between various meanings (“What did she feel?” “How did she act?” “What were her needs?”).

Sample

For the present qualitative research, 32 Arab educational consultants in Israel, who handled IBSA events of students, were interviewed. The interviewees were recruited through key informant connections as part of a purposeful sample. The age of the counselors at the time of the interview ranged from 31 to 50 years, and their seniority ranged from 4 to 20 years. They were all female and mothers. Fifteen had dealt with incidents of distribution of sexual pictures of students online, nine with incidents of revenge porn (the motive for distribution of the nude photo being revenge against the partner after a breakup), and eight with incidents of sextortion.

Procedure

The 32 semistructured interviews were conducted by Arab graduate students in educational counseling, who were trained for this purpose by the researcher. Interviewees received explanations about the research, and it was made clear to them that the interview was anonymous. They were asked to sign an informed consent form. The interviews were conducted over Zoom at the convenience of the interviewees. They lasted 60–90 min. Interviews were conducted in Arabic, recorded, transcribed in full, and analyzed to identify unifying themes.

Data Processing and Reliability

After completing the data collection, the data was processed in three stages. In the first stage, the text of each interview was read as a complete uniform finding from the counselor's point of view to obtain a holistic view of it. In the second stage, the text was reread and flagged units of meaning based on personal awareness and interpretation, by identifying words, sentences, or recurring ideas that have consolidated into themes (Giorgi, 2012; Spinelli, 2005). In the third stage, the themes were structurally organized, and refined, clarified, and validated. At the end of this stage, the counselor's point of view regarding the IBSA phenomenon emerged in detail. In this way, it was possible to integrate all the interviews and examine the question of how the counselor's point of view contributed to the understanding of the phenomenon.

To meet credibility criteria and achieve trustworthiness, an audit trail was used, peer debriefing, and member checking (Lincoln & Guba, 1985; Morse, 2015). In addition, the research team discussed analyzing the findings in a way that avoids bias as a result of personal interpretations. Additionally, the findings of the present study reinforce those of previous studies, which increases the credibility of the study.

The author works in academia and holds public positions in education programs about the risks of online sexual abuse in Israel. She lectures about preventing online risks for children and youths. The interviewers were Arab field practitioners in educational counseling who agreed about the importance of the counselors’ voices being heard. Before conducting the interviews, the interviewers went through a process of reflection (Finlay & Gough, 2008) that included reflecting on the identities, assumptions, and perceptions they brought to the research interview. The data were analyzed by the author who has studied online sexual abuse for several years.

Research Ethics

In accordance with accepted ethical guidelines, in the initial telephone conversation and again at the beginning of the interview, participants were told about the goals of the research and its importance. They were also assured that their personal details would be kept confidential by using pseudonyms and omitting identifying details, and it was emphasized to them that they could decide not to answer any question or to stop the interview at any time. They were also asked to approve the recording of the interview, guaranteeing that the recordings would be destroyed 5 years after the date of completion of the study. The main ethical issue in this study had to do with the sensitivity of the topic, the issues that were liable to come up during the interview, and the confidentiality of the information about the adolescent girls. For this reason, it was attempted to conduct a sensitive and careful dialogue based on an ethics of caring and empathy. The study was approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee.

Results

Analysis of the interviews produced three main themes: (a) the way in which the counselors characterized the injured girls; (b) the dilemmas in dealing with the incident given the restrictions of Arab society, concerns about reporting the event to the victim's parents, and the systemic handling with the help of actors outside the school; (c) the effect of the handling of the incident on the counselors themselves.

Characteristics of Victims of IBSA as Perceived by the Educational Counselors

Victims of IBSA have been characterized by educational counselors as suffering from emotional deprivation and problematic social conduct. They described victims as having low self-esteem, suffering from social rejection or some emotional difficulty, and often as academically weak. For example, Nur, an educational counselor who handled a video-sharing event, said:

I had treated the student about the whole issue of social rejection, life skills. Girls who are socially rejected and lack love often look for it in relationships. … We found the student talking to a boy from abroad. Photos and video. … We’re talking about a video that is distributed in seconds.

Sana, a high school counselor who handled a photo-sharing incident, also related:

The girl behaves this way for lack of love and respect, nobody notices her, and she needs love from parents and siblings. … She would photograph herself partially naked and send the photos to the high school student she's in contact with. The student distributed the pictures, which reached other students in the class and in the school. … She's a very problematic student, uses violence a lot, doesn’t get along well in class, the students in the class always complain about her behavior. In addition, she's very weak academically.

Wafa, an educational counselor who handled a high school sexting incident, said:

A student with a very low self-esteem saw that someone noticed her and cared for her … I think a girl involved in such an incident is shouting ‘I'm here. Notice me and care for me,’ except she does it in an inappropriate way. Today's generation is shouting, ‘I'm here, look at me.’

Samira described how the abuser tempted the victim, who suffered from low self-esteem and lacked warmth and love:

The guy asked the student to send him pictures of her naked, she sent pictures of herself to a boy she met online. He told her you’re beautiful, your body is beautiful, to tempt her. She was very weak academically, she was not really accepted, she also had no social connections.

The counselors who were interviewed identified the victims’ behavior as resulting from a lack of relationships and parental involvement, and from a sense of absence of love on the part of the family. According to the counselors, this caused them to seek warmth and appreciation outside the family, which led them to risky behaviors that could result in sexual exploitation and harm. None of the counselors addressed the victimizer or his characteristics, and all of them examined the victims’ difficulties and the conduct that made them vulnerable to IBSA. For example, this is how Lubna described the sextortion event she handled: “I kept thinking, how a good student, so mature, gets into such a situation, what is she missing?” In other words, even when the counselor did not identify prominent characteristics of the victim, she nevertheless sought to investigate what was there in the victim that allowed her to be harmed.

Dilemmas in the Handling of the Event Affected by Belonging to Arab Society

During the interviews, the counselors shared their dilemmas regarding how best to handle the incidents. They debated the issue of reporting to the victim's parents for fear of harming the victim, an injury that could lead to murder on grounds of family honor. The interviewees made extensive use of words expressing fear and apprehension, and it was evident that this issue affected them greatly. All interviewees expressed great concern and described at length the dilemma of whether or not to involve the parents. Most chose not to involve the parents at all, and chose to handle the incident within the confines of the school. For example, Sausan, who handled a sextortion incident, described it as follows:

Disseminating a nude picture in Arab society, especially a picture of a daughter, is very sensitive and difficult to handle, it harms the dignity of the whole family and endangers the victim's life. We didn’t inform the parents because this can endanger the life of the student. When I know that the parents are not cooperating, I don’t involve them at all.

Indeed, the counselors reiterated their concern about the fathers’ response and expressed concern for the lives of the victims. Rihan, who handled a photo-sharing incident, recounted her dilemma of involving the parents in the incident to complete the handling of the incident of the young woman, and her fear for the student's life on the grounds of family honor:

I was afraid. If something happens to her. If she's harmed again, then it's my responsibility. On the other hand, am I sending the student to her death? What if the brother kills her? I’ll pay a heavy price for my decisions.

Indeed, to cope with the apprehension, some have chosen to share the information with the mother only, and try to mobilize her to handle her daughter discreetly, and at the same time protect her. Arwa, who handled a sextortion incident, described the concern for the victim's well-being and how she chose to involve the mother only: “I shared the information only with the mother, the father knew nothing about the incident. Her father is very tough and can’t be involved in such an event. He’ll just kill her without thinking twice.”

The need to report to parents and share with them the difficult event concerning what their daughter is going through appears to conflict with cultural values and codes. This presented the interviewees with a complex dilemma because on one hand, they have an obligation to report, and on the other, cultural sensitivity is needed to avoid putting the victim in danger. This dilemma also preoccupied the counselors when it came to turning to the enforcement agencies.

Although this involved violating the law, the counselors, who feared laying heavy blame on the victim and risking the young woman's life, found it difficult to enlist the help of the police. For example, Nora related how she handled a sextortion incident: “In another society, they might have reported directly to the police. For us, it is not the same thing. In our society, a lot of discretion needs to be exercised in such a sensitive case.” Nadia also expressed reservations about reporting to the police, but she did enlist the help of the welfare agencies, which she said had managed to maintain confidentiality: “I don’t involve the police at all. They’re the last ones I think of involving because it doesn’t do any good, only harm. Welfare is able to help without the whole world knowing about the case.” Some of the interviewees clearly preferred to deal with the difficult cases with the help of village notables or other people who had a personal acquaintance with the offender. Sarah, for example, described how she handled a sexting incident by herself approaching the extortionist and stopping further extortion:

I managed to get the name of the blackmailer and the name of the school he attended. I spoke with the principal and the counselor at his school. He was called in for a talk and told that what he was doing was sexual extortion and that it is a violation of the law, and if he didn’t stop we will take action according to the law. It stopped, and the pictures were deleted.

Based on what the counselors said, it was clear that their judgment, their familiarity with the case, the circumstances of the girl, and with her family were important in deciding the best way to handle the case. They all agreed that there was no single clear way of dealing with such cases. The counselors related that approaching outside parties was made in collaboration with the school administration and at times with the supervisor, to consider and evaluate each case individually and in this way provide the response that is most appropriate for the victim.

Implications of Handling the IBSA Event for the Educational Counselors

Interviewees described the implications of handling a nude photo distribution event for themselves. Their feelings ranged from surprise and shock to pain, anger, and disappointment regarding the victims. At the same time, they felt a great responsibility for managing the event, and noted that they felt like the responsible adult. Ibtisam, who dealt with a sextortion event, described it as follows:

I was angry with the student inside, I was afraid of the parents’ reaction if they found out about the case, I was afraid something would happen to her … I felt like her mother. I always had feelings of fear and pain about what she was going through. It really affected me in my daily life at that time. It was difficult.

The counselors described being overwhelmed emotionally and feeling lonely in dealing with difficult events, as well as concrete fear of being harmed. Lilia, who handled a photo-sharing, described her fears: “There's my fear as a therapist that they'll hurt me, because I know the whole story, I know what the secrets are. It was scary.” This apprehension and the need to manage the event while maintaining confidentiality to protect the girl seemed to have led to great loneliness and the need to share feelings and consult with someone else. Soha, who handled a revenge porn event, said:

The person who was there for me emotionally and always by my side was a colleague. I chose to share only with her because this is information I should not share with anyone else. She was with me throughout the process and accompanied me, she served as my backbone at that time. I poured out everything before her. If I didn’t feel lonely it was thanks to the relief she brought me.

Interviewees also described how exposure to IBSA events changed their educational attitudes toward their own children, and made them apprehensive about their online conduct. Although in Arab society discourse on sexuality is not acceptable, they began to discuss the issue with their children, aiming to prevent such incidents from occurring in their homes. Ruba, for example, said:

Handling this case made me anxious because I have teenage girls. It scared me. I don’t wish it would happen to me, in my house, and to my children. It's very difficult. Although it is less acceptable, I decided that I would talk to the girls and warn them. That's all I need. … That something should happen to them because I didn’t speak up in time.

Suha also experienced difficulty in handling the incident. She related how it changed her handling of her son, and spoke about the need to build trust with him and promote open dialog:

After the incident, it took me a week to recover. The case made me afraid of adolescence. I was afraid about my son, how many children of his age can be in danger and may be exposed to very difficult and frightening cases, and it taught me to build trust between myself and my child, talk to him and listen to him. … Maybe he’ll do the same to a girl, I can’t know.

Similarly, Ahlam also described caution and fear of a situation in which her children would end up in the same situation:

It's not easy. It makes me obsess that it won’t happen to my children in the future. I always try to raise awareness at home, I talk more and guide my children. And about myself, I’m very careful. Acceptable or not, I must!

Discussion

The present study focused on the experience of Arab educational counselors facing IBSA events. The intersectional approach can account for how both gender and ethnicity affect the position in society of the Arab counselors. On one hand, they are responsible for the mental well-being of the victims, and on the other, they absorbed the values of a conservative society that emphasizes the modesty of girls (Sinai & Shehade, 2019). This conflict is reflected in the research findings.

The findings indicate that educational counselors sought to characterize the students who fell victim to IBSA. Most often described the victims as suffering from social rejection, emotional difficulties, or a lack of warmth, love, and parental supervision. These findings reinforce those of previous studies that have found an association between the harassment of adolescents in the online space and parental supervision (Khurana et al., 2015). The counselors appear to have sought the cause of the harm in the characteristics of the victim herself, and not in those of the attackers, reflecting similar research findings that have shown a tendency to treat girls who have been sexually assaulted online as having “invited” the harm (Penney, 2016). Intervention programs that address sex education often set themselves the goal of educating girls to avoid risky situations, and deal much less with the boys’ degree of responsibility and the social climate in which they operate (Dobson & Ringrose, 2016). This finding is even more pronounced when it comes to Arab society, where modesty is an important value and the issue of sexuality is almost never discussed (Sinai & Shehade, 2019). The findings of the study support the just-world fallacy (Lerner & Miller, 1978), which argues that people need to believe there is a logical and just explanation for things, therefore blaming a victim reinforces the assumption that bad things happen to bad people who behave in a way that brought harm to them. Thus, victims whose sexual images have been disseminated on the web after they had passed them on to someone are blamed for the irresponsibility that led to their situation (Zvi & Bitton, 2021).

At the same time, for the Arab counselors, any incident related to sexuality is considered to be one that could cost a girl her life, therefore they described the IBSA events as life-threatening.

The interviewees addressed the dilemma they faced in their treatment of the victim. On one hand, they had a legal obligation to report abuse to which minors were exposed, and on the other hand, they feared that this could have fatal consequences for the victims. This finding is supported by the research literature, which refers to the sexual activities of young unmarried Arab women as a taboo, an offense that harms the reputation of the victim and her family (Abu-Baker, 2013), and may lead to severe sanctions against her (Jabareen & Zlotnick, 2021), such as honor killing carried out by a male member of the family (Ne’Eman Haviv, 2020). This also seems to be the reason why Arab counselors conducted a risk assessment and often chose not to involve the parents in the handling of the incident; when they chose to involve a family member, it was the mother rather than the father. In Arab society, the father's traditional role is to discipline and punish (Dwairy, 1998). He is the one who is supposed to control and manage the sexual behavior of his daughters until their marriage (Bates & Rassam, 2001), whereas the mother serves as the main supportive figure (Sulimani-Aidan, 2020). This appears to be the reason why the counselors preferred to share the secret with the mother rather than the father.

The research literature also suggests that professionals often refrain from reporting sexual abuse to the authorities because of the uncertainty about the post-reporting treatment procedure and fear of parental response (McKee & Dillenburger, 2012). In the present study, the counselors appeared to have adapted the treatment to the incident, and found it difficult to report it to the police. This difficulty is reflected also in other studies that identified the police as a barrier to reporting incidents of sexual abuse because of disappointment with their handling of the case (Dolev-Cohen et al., 2020), and at times also because Arab families distrust state law enforcement (Al-Krenawi et al., 2009).

Regarding the implications of treating a student's IBSA incident for the educational counselors who handled the incident, the findings of the present study suggest that the educational counselors experienced emotional turmoil. They described emotional hardship, responsibility to protect the victim, choosing the optimal handling of the incident, and maintaining confidentiality. Studies suggest that exposure of counselors to situations of sexual abuse may impair their functioning as well as their mental and physical well-being (Tremble, 2014). This phenomenon is defined as compassion fatigue, in which posttraumatic symptoms are present in the therapist. The syndrome characterizes educational counselors who by virtue of their role deal with stressful life events of their students and are emotionally involved with them (Levkovich & Ricon, 2020). In the present study, the guidance that counselors provided to victims of sexual assault affected their own lives, primarily emotionally but also behaviorally. This finding is supported by the research literature, indicating that caregivers are influenced by the therapeutic process they provide, which lingers in their minds and often controls them even in situations away from the clinic (Dean & Barnett, 2011). Some of the counselors tried to deal with anxiety and worries by talking to their children and taking preventive steps, despite the taboo prohibiting sexual discourse in Arab society. Indeed, one of the common practices for preventing sexual abuse in children is the prevention of sexual discourse (Müller et al., 2014) and of sex education (Smylie et al., 2008).

IBSA is one of the most serious forms of abuse, harming victims in both online and offline environments (Huber, 2022). The present study shed light on the phenomenon by addressing the experiences of the educational counselors who handled the online nude photo distribution events of students in the Arab sector, the dilemmas they faced, and the influence that the nature of conservative Arab society exercised on the treatment.

Limitations

The present study has several limitations. First, only women were interviewed for the study. It is possible that men's participation in the study would have produced different findings. In recent years, Israel has implemented training programs for counselors to promote a better understanding of sexual assault online and offline. It is not clear, however, which of the participants in the present study have been trained and how. Such training may have affected their handling of the IBSA of female students. Also, because the topic of the study is highly sensitive, especially in Arab society, there may have been a bias related to the responsiveness of the participants to take part in the study. It is possible that more conservative counselors or those who observed the taboo regarding the discourse on sexuality would have described a different experience. Moreover, IBSA groups together a variety of phenomena, and further research should examine how each of these is being handled individually. Finally, all counselors were over the age of 31. Younger counselors may have perceived the phenomenon differently given the smaller age gap between themselves and the victims.

Implications and Future Directions

A great deal of attention has been paid to the prevention of cyberbullying among adolescents within the school setting, but the prevention of IBSA is hardly mentioned in the Israeli education system, and certainly not in the conservative Arab society, which avoids discourse about sexuality (Jabareen & Zlotnick, 2021). This leads to a lack of knowledge about the characteristics of the phenomenon, its risk factors, and its consequences for the youths involved. Educational counselors should be aware of the possibilities for systemic work and receive support for themselves and the victims. At the same time, it is important for the educational counseling staff to be aware of judgmental feelings of victim blaming, which may affect how victims are treated.

It is also important to produce culture-adapted prevention programs, which are adapted to the digital age in which adolescents take pictures of themselves and send provocative images that can lead to severe sexual harm (Dolev-Cohen & Ricon, 2020). Adolescents need help in making decisions and understanding the risks involved in their online behaviors. It is of great importance to discuss the right to refuse to take part in sexual acts, and the ability to avoid unwanted situations, as well as the acceptance of the other's right to refuse. Such an approach has been linked to effective measures in school sex education programs (Constantine et al., 2015). It is also important to talk about adolescents’ norms and attitudes toward issues of sexuality, and address situations in which adolescents’ thinking is affected by their higher sensitivity to social influences or by how they think they are perceived by others, and to teach them self-regulation strategies (Marshall et al., n.d.; Seiler-Ramadas et al., 2020).

Cultural taboos are the strongest barrier affecting educational programs on sexuality. Young Arab women may refrain from seeking help for fear of being accused of provoking sexual assault (DeJong & El-Khoury, 2006; Grubb & Turner, 2012). Creating anonymous, culturally tailored responses can make it easier for victims to get help and care that is customized to their needs. It is also important to create a support system for the counselors who handle difficult events like IBSA and are left to process these events by themselves. Systemic support can help alleviate and reduce compassion fatigue (Levkovich & Ricon, 2020).

Under the present conditions, the better we understand IBSA in its various cultural context, the better we will be able to confront it and minimize its deleterious effect.

Footnotes

Acknowledgements

Some of the interviews in the current study were conducted by graduate students, as part of their fulfillment of the requirements for a seminar on the topic. I am grateful to them all for the time and effort they invested in conducting the interviews.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/ or publication of this article: This work was supported by Academus program, Oranim Academic College of Education, Israel.

ORCID iD

Michal Dolev-Cohen

Notes

Author Biography

Michal Dolev-Cohen is a senior lecturer and a researcher in cyberpsychology. She is also head of the center for learning and research online vulnerability, in the educational counseling program at Oranim Academic College of Education, Israel. Her major research interests include the expression of online sexuality among adolescents, online sexual abuse (such as sextortion, revenge porn, and grooming), cyberbullying, parents–adolescents relationship in the digital era, and more.

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