Views and Attitudes about Youth Self-Produced Sexual Images among Professionals with Expertise in Child Sexual Abuse

Abstract

ABSTRACT The proliferation of youth self-produced sexual images (SPSI) raises complex practice challenges for professionals supporting victims of sexual abuse. This paper examines the views and perspectives about youth SPSI among professionals with expertise in child sexual abuse, who in the course of a study on child sexual abuse images, commonly raised SPSI without prompting. Eighty-four participants from three professional sectors (Internet child exploitation law enforcement, child protection, and children’s mental health) took part in 12 focus groups, the analysis of which indicates that most participants regarded youth SPSI as a complex social phenomenon, and had trouble fitting it into their existing professional expertise. Participants were immersed in larger cultural narratives about youth sexual agency, the dangers of constantly evolving technology, and the digital age compounding generational differences. Lack of clarity about when and whether a young person requires support and/or legal intervention arose from a tangled web of punitive, permissive, and ambivalent perspectives on youth SPSI. Professionals experienced with victims of sexual abuse focused on SPSI as opposed to child abuse images, and struggled to distinguish between what is normal versus problematic youth sexuality in the digital age, confounding efforts to settle on appropriate legal and support responses and interventions.