3.6.4 Guarding against the Misuse of Computers, the Internet and Technology to Abuse Children and Young People

Introduction
The Potential Dangers
Guidelines for Parents/Carers
Signs of Computer Addiction
Signs that a Young Person may be the Target of Sexual Abuse On-line
What to do if you are Concerned
Finally
References

1. Introduction

Computers and the internet are the darlings of today. Anyone who doesn't agree risks being deemed to be technologically incompetent or paranoid. Yet, we know that the misuse of computers and the Internet can be dangerous for children and young people. Some children and young people are especially vulnerable: children who are disabled/have special needs, children who are in the Looked After system or have been adopted, and children who have histories of being neglected or abused.

2. The Potential Dangers

The internet has hugely innovative characteristics which are generally advantageous. The internet is worldwide, with no central control, and it links individuals across the world. It is fast, easy to access and appears to grant anonymity. It can be used as a source for information, leisure, music, and advertising. More and more children have access to the Internet, either at home, in school, in libraries or elsewhere.

Computers can become a means for people who are sexually interested in children to contact children, abuse/exploit them, produce, store and distribute abusive images of children. The Internet is useful to producers and consumers of child pornography and those intent on recruiting children for a number of reasons, (Calder 2004).

Technology makes constant updating easy.
It can reach a global audience.
The quality of images do not deteriorate in the process of transfer or with age.
Digital quality photographs can be obtained unobtrusively, and even without consent, by camera phones at less expense.
Users can invent an identity and route messages through different countries to avoid detection.
Traditional controls can be by-passed.
Abusers can modify images such as superimposing a child's face.

The internet is used by abusers: to facilitate anonymous, rapid dissemination of child pornography; to create and maintain a sense of deviant behaviour; and to reinforce justification processes for adults sexually exploiting children. As Calder (2004) points out, the Internet allows pedophiles:

Instant access to other predators worldwide.
Open discussion about their sexual desires.
Shared ideas about ways to lure victims.
Mutual support of their adult-child sex abusive behaviours and beliefs.
Instant access to potential child victims worldwide.
Disguised identities for approaching children.
Ready access to potential victims.
Means to identify and track down victim information.
Ability to build a long term relationship with a potential victim prior to actual contact.

Child pornography on the Internet means children who are abused, are in a virtual sense abused over and over again, whenever the images are accessed. The images can be used to control and silence the children, and used to manipulate other children. The images can become a permanent record of the abuse which can surface at any time or any place in the world. The Internet makes it possible for abusers who log on for more images, for there to be "non-contact child-sexual abuse", (O'Connell 2004). This encompasses the following types of activities:

Photographing the child for sexual purposes.
Showing the child pornographic materials.
Sexualised talk with the child.
Making fun of or ridiculing the child's sexual development, preference or organs.
Verbal and emotional abuse of a sexual nature.
Exposing genital area to child for sexual gratification.
"Peeping" in on the child while dressing, showering or using the toilet.
Masturbating in front of the child.
Making the child witness others being sexually abused.
Inappropriate sexual solicitation which engages the child in a virtual enactment of the adult's fantasies.

The increasing availability of 3G mobile phones offers video calling, high speed Internet access and handsets with camcorders in them, all of which potentially increases risks to children if the technology is misused by abusers. O'Connell argues that we need to devise strategies to offset these risks. These may include:

Teaching children how to make informed decisions about the appropriate and safe use of communication technologies.
Having a contact point, like Child Line, staffed by people with the technical expertise to advise children and provide positive actions to protect children.
Putting pressure on mobile phone companies to have child safety and risk reduction at the top of their agenda when products are being developed.
Obtaining evidence of abuse is very important. If there could be collaboration between Law enforcement professionals who deal with technological investigations and service providers with regard to product development, then systems could yield technical information which can provide concrete evidence.
Continuing to study how children use technologies so that phone companies can be informed and made to take responsibility for the services they provide and contribute to a reduction in the risks technology can present for child safety.

3. Guidelines for Parents/Carers

Parents and carers should be aware of basic guidelines which may reduce the risks of misuse of the Internet, (Long 2004),'Stop it Now' campaign, British Psychological Society 2007). These are:

Check the computer facilities. If you are buying a computer for family use or you want to review the system you have, seek advice from reputable retailers with regard to what Internet safety devices they would recommend to restrict child access to the Internet. Software is available to filter inappropriate materials. When young people are using computers in friends' houses, at school or in the library, the safety devices may be different. Discuss this with the young person.
Learn about the computer yourself, understand how you can access a record of the history of use on the computer and then periodically use this facility. If, as one carer reported, you have a young person who is able to wipe this record clean, then you may need to have to insist that the history function on the computer is not wiped clean or access to the computer will be denied.

"I asked her what site she was on and she told me the name. It sounded like a children’s site name and I was reassured. When I looked at what they were talking about, it was all about sex, including the rape of a twelve year old girl. I was really shocked. I didn’t know how to check up on the history of use before, but I do now."
- A Foster Mother
Place the computer in a living-room. It is easier to monitor the use of the Internet, if the computer which has Internet access is placed in a communal room in the home, the adults are likely to see what is on the screen at times which can't be predicted by the young person. Pedophiles have said, with regard to computers which have web cams, that if they can see that the computer is in a communal room, then that is a restraining factor for them with regard to contact with the young person using the computer.
Talk about computer use. Children and young people need help to enjoy the Internet and make positive use of it. It can help them if parents/carers are able and willing to talk about how they use the Internet, in much the same way as parents/carers talk to children and young people about books they have read or films they have seen.
Set limits to time spent on the computer. In encouraging our children to manage computers and the Internet, it is important to recognise that this is not a substitution for real social contact and other activities. Limiting time that a young person spends on the computer is a helpful boundary to set. Children need to be encouraged to enjoy other activities: playing with friends, family activities, hobbies, sports etc.

"When I talked to my friend, I found out that she limits the time her children can spend on the computer to half an hour in the evening. I feel I should have done that, rather than wait till it got out of hand with him spending hours on the computer and not wanting to do anything else".
- A Foster Mother
Manage the information from the Internet. When they are using the computer and accessing the Internet, children need teaching how to manage the information they find. Without support, children and young people are likely to think that because the information is on the Internet, it is right and to be believed.
Young people need training to learn to not give out personal information over the Internet. They should not give out information about their name, their address, their date of birth, their telephone number or their school. If the activity is such that they feel they need to identify themselves, then they should use a nickname but not one which identifies their age or has sexual connotations.

"Sometimes I look at the names of her friends on their email accounts and I worry about what it all means and the messages they are giving to people, like sexyknickers@....."
- A Mother
Guard the personal information of others. It is also important that they learn not to give out this same information about family members or friends.
It is important to teach young people that the people they "meet" on-line, are not "friends" and they might not be who they say they are. It can be useful to have a discussion with a young person about how we judge people to be friends. A friend is someone that we know, with whom we have a mutual relationship of trust and understanding, and where the relationship is mutually supportive. It can help young people if adults are clear with their language, referring to people children meet on-line as an "on-line contact" or a "computer pal" (rather like a pen pal) and in this way signaling by their language, a distinction between a friend and someone met on-line.
The dangers of meeting up with people from on-line contacts. Young people need to be warned of the dangers of meeting up with people with whom they have been in contact on-line, regardless of what the person says. It is helpful to young people to set the boundary of not arranging to meet someone without talking to parents/carers and never going alone to meet a person with whom they have had contact on-line.

"My 14 year old was on a site called “Wicked Colours” for teenagers. It seemed okay, until she said to me “What’s our telephone number”, and when I asked her why she was asking, she said that she was going to meet someone she’d met on-line, in Oxford. I asked a teacher to check the site, and he found pop-ups which were literally soft pornography. I was really worried because she’d taught my 8 year old grandchild how to find the site."
- A Foster Mother
Learn about social network sites and chat rooms. Parents/carers need to understand what social network sites and chat rooms are, and to be clear which are monitored and which are open. Again, consulting a reputable retailer can provide parents/carers with information about software packages which can be used to switch off a computer when inappropriate language is used. This means that when a young person is using the Internet, and loudly complains that the computer has "crashed", it will alert a supervising adult to the possibility that inappropriate talk/material has been accessed.
Know about the use your young person makes of social network sites. If parents/carers know that a young person is using a social network site, it might be useful to consider insisting on seeing a sample of the photographs and/or messages on the site from time to time. Few young people, especially teenagers, will agree to all the material they have put on the site being scrutinised all the time. However, a random check and the reaction this produces, might alert an adult to the possibility that misuse is occurring. Young people posting suggestive pictures or videos of themselves, are putting themselves at risk. The capacity of abusing adults to overcome what young people think are safeguards on these sites should never be underestimated.

"My daughter was on Bebo when a message came out of the blue, it was from a man in America and it had a photograph of him dressed in a tuxedo. In the message he said that his wife had died and he was worried because his daughter was having problems with her periods and he was asking if he could talk to my daughter about this I pressed the reply button and typed in “pervert” and sent it back."
- An Adoptive Mother
Chain emails, purporting to be in support of a needy group or to bring good luck or a threat if the conditions are not complied with, can when passed between groups of children/young people and their acquaintances, provide an abuser with a list of contact email addresses which can then be misused.

"My daughter got a chain e-mail from a school friend. It said she had to send it to ten friends or something bad would happen to her. It said someone would come into her bedroom at night and kill her. It had a picture of what was said to be a dead girl. She was really upset that anyone should send it to her and so was I. When I thought about it, I thought that the pages and pages of email addresses were likely to be girls like her and would be a gift of contact addresses for a pedophile. So I telephoned the Police and they took the email."
- A Mother
Be reassuring. Parents/carers need to reassure young people, that if they have done or said things or are uncomfortable with their use of the Internet, that we all make mistakes and that, as a parent/carer, you see your job as to help them when they make mistakes. It is important that young people are not more fearful of the supervising adults than they are of what they might encounter on the Internet.
If a young person has downloaded pornography, then it is important that the parent/carer restricts their use of the Internet and consults with professionals about this. Questions need to be asked about from whom, how, and when has the young person learned to do this? The young person might need support from suitably qualified and experienced professionals who work with regard to assessing and treating young people with sexual behaviour problems. Parents/carers also need to consult about the fact that the material has been accessed on the Internet and downloaded onto their machine. This may mean having a discussion with the Police. It could well be that the access that has been made to a site offering pornography could be later identified in a Police investigation so it is important to discuss your concerns as soon as possible.
Be in charge. Above all, parents/carers should remember that they are in charge of young people who use computers to access the Internet in their homes. If misuse is suspected, then the parent/carer should investigate locking devices which prevent Internet access at times when there are no supervising adults or while they discuss the misuse with the young person, a fuse or a computer lead can be removed to stop all use, if need be.

"I only let my children on the computer that doesn’t have Internet connections. That way, I don’t worry about what they do. If they want Internet connections, they can use the computers at school at lunchtime or at break or in homework clubs. They can use the computers in the library too."
- A Foster Mother

4. Signs of Computer Addiction

Psychologists are aware of the extent to which people can become addicted to computers. A list of signs specific to computer addiction includes: (Orzack 1998, 1999).

Experiences pleasure, gratification or relief when engaged in computer activities.
Preoccupation with computer activity, including thinking about the experience, making plans to return to the computer, surfing the web, having the newest and fastest hardware.
Needing to spend more and more time or money on computer activities to change mood.
Failure of repeated efforts to control these activities.
Restlessness, irritability, or other low and unhappy moods such as increase in tension, when not engaged in computer activities.
Need to return to these activities to escape problems or relieve low mood.
Neglect of social, familial, educational or work obligations.
Lying to family members, therapists and others, about the extent of time spent on the computer.
Actual or threatened loss of significant relationships, job, financial stability, or educational opportunity, because of computer usage.
Shows physical signs such as backaches, migraines, neglect of personal hygiene or eating irregularities.
Changes in sleep patterns.

Orzack (1998, 1999) argues that the presence of five of these represents a persistent and recurrent misuse of the computer.

5. Signs that a Young Person may be the Target of Sexual Abuse On-line

It is suggested by the 'Stop it Now' campaign, that communication through Internet and mobile phones tends to make young people less wary about what they say and do. If, at a later time, a young person who has lacked judgement with regard to what they have said or done on the Internet, becomes the victim of abuse, then that young person can feel that they are to blame for what has happened. This can then be a barrier to them feeling that they are able to let someone know about their contacts on-line or the behaviour of someone towards them. Signs that a young person may be the target of sexual abuse on-line can include the following:

Spending increasing amounts of time on the Internet.
Becoming increasingly secretive, particularly around their use of the technology.
Shutting the door and/or hiding what they have onscreen when an adult enters the room.
Not being able to talk openly about their use of the Internet and their activities on-line.
Becoming possessive of their mobile phone and concerned if someone else picks it up and wants to look at it.
Agitated behaviour when answering their mobile phone and the young person indicating a need to take a call in private.
Developing a pattern of leaving the family home for periods of time, with no explanation about where they are going.
Vague talk of a new friend, but with no offer of further information or evidence that this is someone in their social contacts at school or in the community.
Spending increasing amounts of time talking secretly with a contact on-line.
Not wanting to be alone with a particular adult or young person.
Sudden, unexplained personality changes and mood swings, over and above what one might expect, particularly from teenagers.
Outbursts of anger or irritation.
Incidents of self-harming behaviour.
Unexplained amounts of money.

6. What to do if you are Concerned

Contact the Police, the Local Authority Duty Social Worker for your area, or the Stop it Now Campaign for advice.

7. Finally

Technology moves at an increasingly fast pace and it can sometimes feel like the developments outstrip our capacity to understand and use it. Parents and carers need to learn as much as they can about the use of computers and the Internet, if the young people for whom they care, are using the technology in the home. If a parent/carer feels their knowledge and understanding falls short of what is useful, then consulting reputable retailers or ICT staff in schools/colleges might be a useful way to seek additional information and advice. If the supervision of young people is punitive or has the effect of scaremongering, then the likelihood that they will talk to us as supervising adults is limited. It is important to allow young people to use the technology while taking a positive role with regard to supervision.

8. References

'Stop it Now' Campaign "The Internet and Children - What's the Problem?" Available from the Stop it Now website.

The British Psychological Society (2007) "Child Protection Portfolio" available from the British Psychological Society website.

Calder, M C (2004) "Child Sexual Abuse on the Internet: Tackling the New Frontier", Russell House Publishing.

Orzack, M H (1998) "Computer Addition, What is it?" Psychiatric Times 15,8

Orzack, MH (1999) "How to Recognise and Treat Computer.Com Addictions" in "Directions in Clinical and Counselling Psychology", 9,13-26

Long, RE (2004) "Young People with Sexual Behaviour Problems and the Internet", in MC Calder (Ed) "Child Sexual Abuse and the Internet", Russell House Publishing

O'Connell, R (2004) "From Fixed to Mobile Internet, the Morphing of Criminal Activity On-line" in MC Calder (Ed) "Child Sexual Abuse and the Internet", Russell House Publishing

This handout was prepared by Anne Peake, Educational Psychologist, and Foster Plus Carers in Abingdon, with comments from with Khadija Rouf, Clinical Psychologist.

End