Youth-Produced Images Are the Majority of Child Sexual Abuse Materials: Categories of Youth and Adult Perpetrators From a Victim Based Study

Abstract

This study examined dynamics of childhood sexual image abuse episodes prior to age 18, based on victim self-reports. An online sample of individuals aged 18-28 filled out a survey, yielding 3,254 episodes of image abuse that occurred prior to age 18. The majority (86%) of abusive episodes involved images that were produced by youth, either as victims or perpetrators. Less than 8% of episodes involved adult-produced images. Youth were identified as perpetrators in 30% of the episodes, and adults were perpetrators in 29%, with the remainder unidentified. Notably, even among adult-perpetrated episodes, 75% of the images had been originally produced by the youth victim. In cases of adult perpetrators, 59% were offline acquaintances. To better understand the diversity of image abuse experiences, we proposed a five-category framework. Adult perpetrator cases were subdivided into (1) adult image producers, (2) adult coercers of youth made images and (3) adult groomers of youth made images. Youth perpetrator cases were subdivided into (4) juvenile coercers, who pressured victims, and (5) juvenile betrayers, who misused images originally taken or exchanged voluntarily. The prevalence of youth-produced and youth-involved image abuse highlights the importance of prevention strategies tailored to school-aged youth.

Keywords

online sexual abuse child sexual exploitation child pornography juveniles with problematic sexual behavior sexting sextortion

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