Original subtitles

What if online Child sexual exploitation is facilitated by a family member?

As in our example of the eight-year-old girl who is being exploited by her mother

well, in many cases, the child may feel a sense of confusion, a real confusion.

This mother is supposed to be a safety figure who protects the child.

And at the same time, the mother is asking the child to do something that makes her feel very uncomfortable.

She may also feel a sense of betrayal.

She may feel guilt. As we know, children tend to take on a lot of guilt and self-blame and start blaming themselves.

So she may feel guilty and she may feel angry.

So there are a lot of difficult feelings she may be dealing with that sort of over and above

the online component when there's a family member involved.

Well, how do we talk to an exploited child?or to their caregiver?

Are there particular things that we can do to increase our ability to build trust with the child

and learn what's going on in their lives so we can help them

There are a few things to know about talking to children who've been sexually abused and exploited.

One is that the initial denial of abuse or exploitation is not uncommon.

We don't have exact statistics for how often this does occur.

It's almost impossible to determine that.

But we know it does occur and people may deny abuse or exploitation

for any number of reasons related to shame, humiliation,fear.

For example, they may initially deny and later disclose their abuse

or they may never disclose it.

But just because a child says nothing happened

does not necessarily mean there was no abuse or exploitation.

In addition, the recantation of an allegation of abuse or exploitation also occurs.

So that is the attorney makes an allegation of disclosure, of exploitation, and then recants and says,

no, no, no, I was lying. It didn't happen.

In many cases, the child may go on later

to make the same allegation again when they feel safer.

We tend to see recantation in cases in which the child is either younger

or they're very vulnerable to external pressure.

If they have a caregiver who doesn't believe them when they say they were abused

if they're receiving a lot of pressure from their family or others close to them to recant their statement

if they're experiencing a lot of trauma associated with an investigation

they may just want it to go away.

So they recant the allegation, hoping things will just go back to the way they were.

Again, in many cases, children who have recanted will later go on to disclose again when they feel safe.

A third point that's really important to make is that while false allegations of sexual abuse

sexual assault, sexual exploitation can and do occur,

we should not assume that they are the norm in the vast majority of cases of child sexual abuse.

The allegation from the child is true.

There are instances where children are making false allegations

but they're rare, and we should not assume that is the norm

in most cases where there are false allegations.

It turns out that the person responsible for that false allegation is the caregiver

or another adult who may have misinterpreted what a child said.

So they think the child is disclosing abuse when the child is intending to do that.

So, again, we know that it can occur

if the child can give a false allegation,but we should not assume that's the norm.

Finally, another good thing to keep in mind is that the initial statement a child gives to you

or to me or to another professional may be incomplete.

Why is this so? many times children want to test the waters

They want to know what you're going to do when they tell you a little bit about what happened.

It's very stressful for them.

So they may tell you a little bit about it and see what you do.

If you're supportive, if you're calm, if you believe them, they feel they can trust you.

They may go on to tell you more either now or the next time they interview you

but often they will not disclose everything in the beginning

because they're trying to decide whether they can trust you.

So don't be surprised if your first interview yields some information and the second interview yields more.

Also, keep in mind that stress can impact memory

and some children cope with extreme stress by pushing down that memory.

So it's hard for them to remember the details of a very stressful event

and it may take time for those details to come out.

It may be that the child tells you one thing, and a week later, when I'm speaking to them they tell me something else.

Does that mean they lie to you? No.

It means that they're accessing different parts of their memory of the event at different times.

So keeping those things in mind, how should we talk to a traumatized child?

Well, there's something called a trauma-informed approach which you may have heard of.

And it's actually appeared as a way of speaking with a child

or an adult or anyone who's experienced significant trauma like online exploitation.

And there are several things that are key to a trauma-informed approach.

One is recognizing the impact the trauma has had on the child victim

and responding appropriately so that the child can feel accepted and build trust.

Another thing that's important is to minimize the trauma that may occur while we are trying to help.

Often our interventions as we try to serve or investigate or assess can be traumatizing to the child.

We want to minimize that trauma.

Other important aspects of trauma-informed care are the importance

of building psychological and physical safety

the importance of being transparent, and communicating information to the child so they know what's going on.

And they don't have to worry about the lack of certainty about what's going to happen next.

Respect is absolutely imperative.

While a child is being abused or exploited, they're not being respected by their exploiter.

They may be systematically degraded and humiliated and disrespected.

So we need to go out of our way to build that respect and show our respect.

And finally, trauma-informed care is not simply about

the trauma a child has experienced about the child being a victim.

We have to remember that the child is a survivor.

They have tremendous strength and resilience that have allowed them to live through these experiences.

And it's our job as a trauma-informed professional

to empower the child, to recognize their own strengths

become engaged with the conversation with you, make decisions

ask questions, feel like they have some agency in this interaction with you.

That's all part of empowering the child.

I have mentioned that trauma impacts the life of the child.

Think about it, the child has been sexually exploited online

or in person has sustained a great deal of trauma that has changed the way they view themselves

the way they view the world.

it's changed the way they view adults

the way they view you the way they interpret what you said and your facial expressions.

It will change the things they say in the way they behave.

Let's take an example.

If a child has been exploited online, they probably have grown to feel that the world is a hostile place.

that others, especially adults, should not be trusted.

The people want to use them not protect them

They don't trust us because we're an unknown stranger. We're adults in a very weary on us.

They may interpret What we have to say as being hostile or judgmental

because they're seeing us through a trauma lens.

Their behaviors reflect what they believe, what they've come to, to accept out of the world.

If a child is being sexually exploited, they may see

the world as being a demanding place that's harsh

and the only way these things take with people is through sexualized behavior

because that's what they've been told is the most important thing about themselves.

So we as professionals need to be able to look at behaviors

listen to what the child has said, and stand back and say

that's the child looking through their trauma leins

that behavior is related to trauma.

And if we do that, it's much easier for us to be non judgmental

calm, open, empathic

A trauma-informed approach is very victim-centered.

And that means the child's best interest

has to take higher priority

It's a higher priority than your interest than the other professionals involved.

We always have to think about what is best for the child and whenever we can honor what the child wants.

I have mentioned, safety is such an issue not only physical safety

which is extremely important but also building a sense of psychological safety for the child.

How do you do that?

We can help a person feel safe by building an environment

to feel safe, making sure that it's got warmth, and that it's warm enough

That people aren't coming in and out, introduce yourself describe your role, and describe what's happened.

build rapport, tend to their basic needs

are really hungry? are you thirsty? are you warm enough?

these are all ways to make your child feel psychologically safe

but it's not just at the beginning.

that You want to worry about psychological safety

but always through your visit with the child.

Whatever you do, whether you're assessing, you are interviewing

doing a physical exam, you just think about all the interactions

and all the environments the child is in

and try to think if is there any point during our interaction.

where the child may start to feel out of control, uncertain about what's going to happen.

Vulnerable threatened coerced

Because all those feelings are associated with trafficking,

if it's our environment

if the way we are interacting with the child triggers those feelings

a feeling out of control and coerced

they're going to become very anxious because that takes them back

to the traumatic situation, while as it turns out

Using a trauma-informed approach addresses an of those triggers

and will take care of them for you if you are transparent if you provide explanations

and obtain consent from a child

if you are giving the child informations

if you're giving them control so they can decide what they want to do or don't want to do.

They know what's going to happen.

If you reveal confidentiality early on, they can decide what they want to tell you

and they are not going to feel betrayed later on

If you're nonjudgmental and open, they feel respected.

They're not going to feel threatened or coerced.

So a trauma-informed approach is really a good way of preventing trauma triggers.

So just to conclude, children and adolescents are at risk for multiple types of online child sexual exploitation

and such exploitation is associated with major adverse physical and mental health consequences

both associated with contact sexual violence as well as the online component of exploitation.

A trauma-informed approach is recommended when working with exploited children.

This is the best way to build that trust and build a connection with the child

that will allow them to feel they can tell you what's going on in their lives

and you can do what you can to help them.

I hope you've gotten something out of this and have profited from this presentation.

Thank you so very much.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to me or email your organization's website.

We're willing and very interested in helping you however we can.

Thank you.