News

Day 1 - 4^th October 2023

Elena Martellozzo, Associate Prof in Criminology Middlesex University, Associate Director of the Centre for Abuse and Trauma Studies (CATS)

Unveiling the Digital Temptation: Investigating the Impact of Online Pornography on Children and Adolescents

This presentation explores the experiences of adolescents aged 11-16 who have encountered online adult pornography, drawing upon a comprehensive national study conducted in the United Kingdom with a participant pool of over 1,100 adolescents (Martellozzo et al., 2020). Dr. Martellozzo will critically analyse the influence of online pornography on viewers and examine the potential shifts in attitudes among adolescents with repeated exposure. Additionally, the presentation will address the social policy implications, both on a domestic and international scale, as revealed by these findings, offering practical advice based on participant insights.

Jonathan Baggaley, Chief Executive National PSHE Association

& MCF Lived Experience Group

Porn Snub: Shattering the new norm

Discussions from professional and lived experience around the normalisation of pornography within society, the increase of extreme content and the issues that flow from this, and the importance of age verification in protecting children.

Associate Professor Michael Salter,  School of Social Sciences, University of New South Wales

Prevalence, risk factors and internet use characteristics of online child sex offenders operating in the Australian, U.S, and U.K general population.

Preventing online child sex abuse requires precise information on the prevalence of undetected offenders, their characteristics, and how they operate online. However, current research is largely restricted to data obtained from registered child sex offenders sourced from small forensic or convenience samples. This paper presents the findings of a survey of child sexual abuse perpetration sourced from three samples representative of the Australian (n = 1,945), U.S (n = 1,473), and U.K (n = 1,506) adult male population. The paper will identity the prevalence of online offenders across the three jurisdictions and describe their risk factors and online behaviours. Comparisons between offenders and non-offenders, and between the three countries, reveal new insights into the social determinants of child sex offending as well as common pathways to offending and potential interventions. 

Chris Hughes, Hotline Director, IWF

The growing financial extortion of our children online and other 2023 sexual abuse trends

“Sextortion” . When financially motivated organised crime collides with online child sexual abuse, the outcome can have devasting and immediate consequences for victims and their families. In this presentation we set out the growth, scale, and nature of the threat, as well as looking at the role that reporting services can play in supporting victims. We also take a snapshot review of how AI (Artificial Intelligence) is already being used in the generation of images of child sexual abuse and how the technology may be further abused to exploit children and young people for financial gain.

Catherine Knibbs, Human Behaviour Technologist

Cybertrauma, when virtual trauma impacts the Viewer and Listener: preventing burnout, compassion fatigue and PTS in Professionals and Child victims

Research into vicarious trauma has been limited to real-world events with the diagnostic manuals confirming that witness trauma, also known as vicarious trauma as being symptomatic with PTSD. Further research suggests that compassion fatigue is also synonymous with the professionals working with trauma who hear about the events in detail or regularly work with cases of crime and abuse and exhibit symptoms of PTSD. More recently studies and explorations have taken place into the effects of viewing CSAM and other harmful material on moderators showing the impact of this profession as meeting criteria for PTSD also. This talk will explore the impact of Cybertrauma once more, and the impact on children, and how we who work in the field of technology facilitated abuse can take care of ourselves to prevent burnout, compassion fatigue and PTS symptoms.

Day 2 - 5^th October 2023

Simon Bailey CBE, QPM, DL, Chair of Policing Institute for the Eastern Region (PIER)

& Megan Hinton, Victim & Survivor Advocate, MCF

Speaking truth to power

T/Detective Inspector Andy Marsh, UK Policing

Offender Misuse of Emerging New Technologies – A Law Enforcement Perspective

An oversight of current CSA offender misuse of technologies, such as VR and AI.  This talk will discuss how offenders are utilising these technologies to advance real world offending along with the emergence of worrying levels of sadism within ‘virtual’ CSA settings.  This input will touch on where offending is currently, what aspirations offenders have for these technologies and a realistic estimation of when those aspirations may be reached.

Laura Higgins, Senior Director of Community Safety and Digital Civility, Roblox

Harnessing Safety and Civility in Immersive Online Spaces

Laura will be sharing Roblox’s approach to safety and civility, how cross-industry collaborations are essential to the future of creating healthy online spaces, and how we should be thinking about safety in immersive spaces and the next iteration of the internet.

Akhim Dev, Director

The hardest conversation

The Children in the Pictures is a feature documentary looking at the epidemic of online child sexual abuse material (CSAM) through the lens of the Victim ID team of Task Force Argos as they give their all to identify, locate and rescue children.

Since the film first aired in October 2021, the documentary has had more than 700,000 views domestically, at the UN 3 times, to Australian parliament and US congress. The podcast was in the top 20 Itunes carts for 2022.

What this shows is that if the messaging round the most horrific of crimes can create a conversation that needs to be had. The film maker will share his learnings with the conference and discuss how The Children in the Pictures has become the Australian Federal Police’s phrase to describe online victims of abuse in their press releases.

Dr Sharon Cooper, MD FAAP President and CEO of Developmental & Forensic Pediatrics, PA

The polyvictimization of child sexual exploitation

The study of childhood victimization was categorized rather neatly at the end of the 20th century. Child maltreatment was perceived to occur predominantly in the immediate and extended family. As such, investigation and treatment strategies were felt to be manageable. However, when digital communication technology seeped into households, children became prey to total strangers with the press of letters on a digital keyboard. Within less than a quarter of a century, the impact of child victimization continues to proliferate well beyond adverse childhood experiences in the family, the community and to the ecologic environment inclusive of natural disasters and pandemics. Polyvictimization, i.e., the occurrence of 4 or more different types of maltreatment is now inclusive of one of the most vulnerable parts of a human child…the complex neuroanatomy of the developing brain.

Breakout Sessions

Day 1, session 1

Penny Tyndale-Hardy, Psychotherapist and Trainer

& MCF Lived Experience Group

Home is where the hurt is

Conversations about child sexual abuse within the home, the hidden emotional abuse and unseen fallout from familial abuse. Insights from lived experience for professionals to consider in their practice.

Amanda Goharian, Senior Research Manager, Thorn

How LGBTQ+ Youth are Navigating Exploration and Risks of Sexual Exploitation Online

Research has repeatedly demonstrated increased rates of potentially harmful interactions online for LGBTQ+ youth as compared to their non-LGBTQ+ peers; however, small sample sizes often limit the depth of analysis among this group. In 2022 Thorn fielded a survey among roughly 1600 young people aged 13-20 aimed at exploring and elevating the unique perspectives and experiences of LGBTQ+ youth, including across sexual orientations and gender identities. The results support prior findings regarding increased risks but also highlight the promising ways in which LGBTQ+ youth are looking to friends as sources of support as they navigate potentially harmful encounters. 

Lizzie Reeves, Senior Policy Manager, Internet Matters

Exploring online misogyny and image-based abuse

This session will share insights from Internet Matters’ new research on image-based abuse between children, and its links to online misogyny. The findings draw from a nationally representative survey on children and parents’ awareness and attitudes to online misogyny and self-described misogynist Andrew Tate.

Day 1, session 2

Lawrence Jordan, MCF Director of Services

& Helen and Richard, parents affected by TACSA

What causes further harm? Advocating for children and their families

The framework professionals work within, can at times inadvertently cause further harm. Adaptations to practice can significantly improve outcomes for those you work with whilst mitigating harm and demonstrating best practice.

Sarah Goff, Senior Research Associate University of Portsmouth

It’s a mainstream issue! Sexual abuse and working with children who have special educational needs and/or disabilities

This short workshop will explore the impact of assumptions and misperceptions and the overlapping disadvantages and intersectional needs faced by these children, the increased risks from perpetrators but the layers of difficulty faced getting needs met and in changing our practice. It will focus on making adjustments to how we work so these children can have the same rights to be heard, and on some of what we need to do across all services to improve responses. These children have the same rights to be safe as all children.

Phoebe Roberts, Assistant Education Manager, Childnet

Understanding online sexual harassment amongst children and young people

This session will look at young people’s experiences of online sexual harassment, including the different forms it can take. Through activities and discussion, it will explore some of the reasons why online sexual harassment happens, address some of the challenges in supporting young people with this issue and signpost to practical resources to help start conversations in the future.

Day 2

Professor Nuria Lorenzo-Dus, DRAGON-S Project Principal Investigator, Swansea University

Ruth Mullineux-Morgan, DRAGON-Shield Deputy Lead, Swansea University

Project DRAGON-Shield: From Evaluation to Roll Out

DRAGON-Shield, a Swansea University Project funded by the End Violence Against Children Safe Online Fund is an interactive multi-media portal. Through 8 modules the training relays specialist knowledge to child safeguarding practitioners about groomer <-> child communicative behaviour during online grooming. The tool strengthens a child safeguarding practitioners' ability to prevent children from being sexually groomed online and support those who have experienced harm. This workshop will present the findings of our pilot and evaluation conducted in January to June 2023 across 4 countries and offer a demo and opportunity to engage with aspects of the training. It will also provide an update on next steps and plans for access to and roll out of the training.

Philip Baines, MCF Safeguarding & Training Consultant

The law and best practice guidance on how to manage incidents of Self-Generated Indecent Images

An insight into police and KCSIE guidance on how to investigate and manage cases, as well as best practice advice for safeguarding professionals, ensuring no further harm, while putting the child’s welfare first.

Prof. Rachel Armitage,  Professor of Criminology, University of Huddersfield

Lucy, visiting research fellow

Dr Theresa Redmond, The Policing Institute for the Eastern Region (PIER), Associate Professor, Anglia Ruskin University

PC Tom Scott, Lincolnshire police, Indirect Victim Support Officer

The 'Knock' - best practice in supporting the families of alleged CSA offenders

Recognising the ‘knock’ and its aftershocks as trauma events: Exploring the role of agencies in minimising the harms experienced by family members when someone is investigated for CSAM offences.