“It's Just an Image, Right?”: Practitioners’ Understanding of Child Sexual Abuse Images Online and Effects on Victims

Child sexual abuse images online (CSAIO) present new and daunting challenges for practitioners working in the field of child sexual abuse (CSA). Current understanding of the phenomenon is severely limited due to a lack of theoretical and empirical research in the area. This article reports findings from a study that examined practitioners’ experiences with, and views of, CSAIO. Participants differed in how they conceptualized what constituted online CSA images and held varying degrees of concern regarding the potential effects of CSAIO on the child. Some practitioners were uncertain about whether child victims of CSAIO experience particular effects different from or over and above those caused by conventional (non-Internet related) CSA. A key finding was that most practitioners did not have a clear understanding of CSAIO. This article includes recommendations for future research regarding the implications of technology in the field of CSA.