Characteristics that predict exposure to and subsequent intentional viewing of child sexual abuse material among a community sample of Internet users

Background

An important element of reducing the sexual abuse and exploitation of children is to understand the behaviors of individuals who consume child sexual abuse material (CSAM), including the predictors of continued use.

Objective

To investigate predictors of ‘ever viewing’ CSAM and subsequent intentional use among individuals in the community.

Method

This study used multivariate logistic regression analysis to identify significant predictors of ever viewing CSAM (n = 742) in an anonymous survey of 5512 Internet users in the community, and of subsequent intentional CSAM use among a subset of 459 CSAM viewers.

Results

The characteristics of respondents that were significantly associated with ever viewing CSAM were being male, older in age (25–34 and 55+ years cf. 18–24 years), residing in Australia, New Zealand, or Canada (cf. the United Kingdom), earlier exposure to adult pornography (<14 years), experiencing childhood physical abuse or neglect, viewing bestiality pornography featuring adults, viewing bondage/S&M (BDSM) pornography featuring adults, being likely (self-reported) to have sexual contact with a child, and visiting pedophilic chat forums online. In the subset sample, almost half (218, 47.5 %) viewed CSAM again intentionally after first exposure. Predictors of subsequent intentional viewing of CSAM after adjusting for age and country of residence were being male, ever experiencing loneliness, searching for CSAM intentionally at first exposure, being likely (self-reported) to have sexual contact with a child, and visiting pedophilic chat forums online.

Conclusions

The findings have strong implications for prevention of first exposure to CSAM, and of continued CSAM use after exposure does occur.