Online Child Sexual Abuse: What the data tells us about the connection to teens’ peer relationships

As the technological tools available to us have evolved and diversified, our field has rightly focused on the ways technology can facilitate harmful sexual behaviors. Very often, though, everything from the popular imagination to policy interventions zooms in on “stranger danger” online and harm to children and adolescents by adults. Dr. Finkelhor will explore what the data on online sexual abuse involving youth tells us about peer dynamics, clinical impacts, effective policy, effective prevention strategies, and the tools we need for working with youth, as clinicians and as a field.

Presenter: David Finkelhor, PhD
Presentation Date: November 19, 2024

Learning Objectives

Participants will be able to:

1. Describe recent data on the dynamics of online sexual abuse of young people.
2. Apply information about peer-to-peer dynamics of online sexual abuse to clinical work with young people with harmful sexual behaviors.
3. Integrate strategies for policy and programs that improve help-seeking among young people, address the developmental dynamics at play in peer-to-peer online sexual abuse, and link prevention programs for harmful sexual behaviors with programs fostering healthy relationship strategies in adolescents.