Abstract
BackgroundDespite the high prevalence of child sexual offenses and the increasing amounts of available child sexual abuse material, there is a global shortage of preventive interventions focusing on individuals at risk of sexual offending. The web-based app Troubled Desire aims to address this shortage by offering self-assessments and self-management training modules in different languages to individuals with sexual interests in prepubescent and early pubescent children (ie, those with pedophilic and hebephiliac sexual interest, respectively).ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to describe the characteristics of the users of the Troubled Desire app.MethodsThe fully completed self-assessment data gathered within the first 30 months of this study from October 25, 2017 to April 25, 2020 were investigated. The main outcome measures were (1) sociodemographic information and (2) sexual interests and sexual behaviors of the users of Troubled Desire.ResultsThe self-assessment was completed by 4161 users. User accesses were mainly from Germany (2277/4161, 54.7%) and the United States (474/4161, 11.4%). Approximately 78.9% (3281/4161) of the users reported sexual interest in children; these users were significantly more likely to report distress and trouble owing to their sexual interest. Further, child sexual offenses and consumption of child sexual abuse material were significantly more common among users with sexual interest in children than among users with no sexual interest in children. Additionally, the majority of the offenses were not known to legal authorities.ConclusionsThe Troubled Desire app is useful in reaching out to individuals with sexual interest in prepubescent and early pubescent children. However, future research is warranted to understand the prospective relevance of the Troubled Desire app in the prevention of child sexual offending.
Highlights
BackgroundChild sexual offenses and consumption of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) are global problems of great magnitude
A target group that is suitable for prevention approaches are individuals with pedophilia [4] and individuals with hebephilia [5]
The consumption of CSAM seems to be a stronger indicator of pedophilic and hebephiliac sexual interest than committing sexual offenses against children [9]
Summary
BackgroundChild sexual offenses and consumption of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) are global problems of great magnitude. Pedophilic and hebephiliac sexual interests are not prerequisite for engaging in child sexual offenses or for the consumption of CSAM. Both pedophilia and hebephilia can be regarded as the major risk factors for committing sexual offenses against children [6,7]. Despite the high prevalence of child sexual offenses and the increasing amounts of available child sexual abuse material, there is a global shortage of preventive interventions focusing on individuals at risk of sexual offending. The web-based app Troubled Desire aims to address this shortage by offering self-assessments and self-management training modules in different languages to individuals with sexual interests in prepubescent and early pubescent children (ie, those with pedophilic and hebephiliac sexual interest, respectively). Future research is warranted to understand the prospective relevance of the Troubled Desire app in the prevention of child sexual offending
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