Decades of studies from respected academic institutions, have demonstrated significant impacts of porn consumption for individuals, relationships, and society. "What’s the Research" aims to shed light on the expanding field of academic resources that showcase porn’s harms in a variety of ways. Below are selected excerpts from published studies on this issue.
The full study can be accessed here.
Online Grooming of Children for Sexual Purposes: Model Legislation & Global Review
Authors: International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children
Published: 2017
Background
The grooming of children for sexual purposes through the Internet and related technologies is a growing problem worldwide, putting countless children at risk for sexual abuse and exploitation.
Grooming is the process by which an adult establishes or builds a relationship with a child, either in person or through the use of the internet and related technologies, to facilitate online or offline sexual contact with the child. Online grooming can be connected with a variety of different forms of sexual exploitation of children, such as the creation of child sexual abuse material and sexual assault…
In an effort to understand how countries are addressing this issue and to make recommendations for the development of new laws, ICMEC conducted a review of existing international and national law.
It is important that national legislation distinguish between online and offline grooming behaviors to ensure adequate investigation and prosecution of Internet-facilitated grooming of children.
Methods
Research into national online grooming legislation initially began in the spring of 2012.
Primary sources of information include: Westlaw; the Council of Europe publication Protecting children against sexual violence: The criminal law benchmarks of the Budapest and Lanzarote Conventions; the European Online Grooming Project; the US State Department’s Human Rights Report; and other similar works.
Once the relevant information was assembled, legal analysis was conducted and preliminary results were compiled.
Results
The online grooming process often includes sexual conversation, showing adult pornography and/or child sexual abuse material to the victim, and pressuring or coercing the child to create and share sexual images of him or herself…
Offenders use the trust they have built to desensitize the child to sexual abuse. They may send sexually graphic, suggestive, or explicit images to the child—including adult pornography and child sexual abuse material—to persuade the child to reciprocate this behavior.
The offender initially requests photographs of the child in ordinary settings and progressively pressures the child to send more sexually explicit images of him or herself… As the relationship develops, online groomers may show adult pornography or child sexual abuse material to the victim to lower the child’s inhibitions, desensitize the child to sexual activity by “normalizing” it, and teach the child sexual behaviors.
Showing the child pornographic images and videos can increase the child’s sexual curiosity and lead to sexual discussions that advance a sexual relationship. Offenders use pornography to teach the child how to masturbate, pose for sexual photos, perform oral sex, and/or engage in intercourse and other sexual activities.
Often, the offender will introduce the victim to “mainstream” adult pornography, progress to hard-core pornography, and then on to more abusive images of children.
Exposure to such material primes victims for being manipulated into sending pictures or videos of themselves to the offender.
The full study can be accessed here.
