Reduced use of child sexual abuse material after online CBT

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have conducted a pioneering study analyzing internet-delivered anonymous cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for people who view images or videos of children being sexually abused. The participants, who were mainly recruited via forums on the encrypted part of the internet called Darknet, reported less use of such material after therapy. The study is published in the journal Internet Interventions.

The spread of images and videos of children being sexually abused is a widespread problem. In 2021, almost 85 million files suspected to contain documented sexual abuse of children, legally referred to as child pornography, were reported to different tiplines around the world, an increase of about 30 percent from 2020.

The researchers in the current study wanted to test if it was possible to overcome these obstacles by offering online-delivered anonymous cognitive behavioural therapy. For two and a half years, the researchers posted adverts and links on Darknet chats and discussion threads until a total of 160 participants from around the world had been recruited.

The participants 157 men were randomly assigned to either cognitive behavioural therapy treatment or a psychological non- cognitive behavioural therapy placebo group. cognitive behavioural therapy is a form of therapy whereby patients actively work on changing their behaviour and thought patterns.

Over the eight weeks of the therapy, the participants were asked to report how much they viewed child sexual abuse material every week. The researchers then examined all the data collected during the treatment, including from individuals who only participated in parts of it, and analysed how the change in viewing differed between the groups.

The result showed that both groups reduced their viewing substantially, with a small but statistically significant advantage for the cognitive behavioural therapy group. Roughly half of the participants in both groups who submitted data at eight or twelve weeks reported not having viewed child abuse material at all during the preceding week.

Reference:

Reduced use of child sexual abuse material after online CBT; Internet Interventions, DOI: 10.1016/j.invent.2022.100590