pornography child abuse and coersion

¶ … Disease Control and Prevention (2016), as many as one out of every four children have experienced some type of abuse: including physical, emotional, or sexual abuse. Exposure to pornography, whether accidental or not, can be harmful to children's psychological or social development. However, coerced exposure to pornography is a more extensive form of abuse that coincides with other types of abuse including psychological, physical, and sexual abuse.

Coerced child pornography may in fact be one of the most harmful types of child abuse because of the multifaceted nature of the crime. The nationwide prevalence of abuse in the United States is over 700,000 children, with prevalence of death at 2.13 deaths per 100,000 children (CDC, 2016). Child abuse is not just an ethical issue; there are proven consequences of child abuse that have been substantiated by empirical evidence in the scientific literature.

Only a few of the harmful effects of child abuse include abnormal brain development, impaired cognitive skills development, learning disabilities, poor social or emotional skills adaptation, reduced language development, anxiety and mood disorders, and substance abuse (CDC, 2016). Exposure to pornography leads to a different subset of effects, many of which relate to the social development of the child. Research has shown, for example, that exposure to pornographic material can lead to rigid gender stereotyping, and even the condoning if not the perpetration of violence against women (Campo, 2016).

Lack of self-esteem, mistrust of adults and trouble with authority, self-destructive and self-harming behaviors are also known effects of child abuse (Department of Human Services, 2011). Although these are not causal studies, the harmful effects of simple exposure to pornography are nevertheless measurable. There are also correlations between frequent exposure to pornography and sexually coercive behavior later in the child's life (Campo, 2016). It is therefore imperative to eliminate child exposure to pornography.

Yet the more pernicious problem related to the coerced participation of children in either amateur or professional pornography is something that has not bee studied in as much detail. Obviously coercion of any type implies force; the child will often be psychologically manipulated if not outright physically forced to either watch pornography with the perpetrator or perform sexual acts in front of a camera with or for the perpetrator. The long-term effects of such coercive and abusive acts are extensive.

Exposure to Pornography Exposure to pornography alone can lead to unhealthy and risky behaviors. One study shows, "teens who watch movies or listen to music that glamorizes drinking, drug use or violence tend to engage in those behaviors themselves," (Ross, 2012, p. 1). Other studies substantiate the mirroring effect, whereby children who watch pornography repeat what they see on the video or the images. This could lead to the types of high risk sexual behaviors that lead to a child's being exposed to sexually transmitted diseases or pregnancy.

Moreover, exposure to pornography has been shown to be a risk factor in comorbid mental health issues such as intimacy disorders, mood disorders, and substance abuse disorders (Ross, 2012). To mitigate the effects of pornography exposure, parents need to take a more active role in their child's education and educators also need to take responsibility for informing children as young as they are able to understand what the difference is between healthy sexuality and unhealthy sexuality, such as pornography that depicts coercion or violence against women.

When children are educated early about sexuality, the mystique of pornography may be diminished, thus leading to a healthier and more realistic, age-appropriate developmental attitude toward sex. However, exposure to pornography alone is not necessarily considered abuse. An abusive situation involving exposure to pornography may be when a child is deliberately exposed to pornography by anyone: any adult or even any other minor.

Coerced Involvement with Pornography Exposure can in fact be a precursor to coerced participation, especially when some of the commercially produced pornography actually is designed to include images of children watching pornography. By creating pornographic videos in which a child is watching either live or recorded sex, the perpetrator tries to impart a sense of normalization to manipulate the child.

"A major use of commercial child pornography is to convince a potential child victim that the sexual acts desired by the adult offender are fun, exciting, can satisfy the child's curiosity and are a societally acceptable means of expressing affection," (Tyler & Stone, 1985, p. 313). In fact, what the child is watching is another child who had also been coerced, abused, and lied to. A young child has malleable mind and can be susceptible to believing an adult or older child who he or she trusts or admires.

Therefore, reducing any kind of exposure to pornography through strict monitoring is essential to preventing the next stage: coerced participation in pornography. Unfortunately, child pornography is a global industry and law enforcement often faces great difficulty tracking down the black market sources for child pornographic material, human traffickers, and other perpetrators. The sex trafficking on minors is a major global industry, integrated with organized crime, and recent research is emerging with alarming statistics revealing the extent of the problem with 5,544 reported cases in the United States alone in 2015 (Mcpherson, 2016).

These are just the reported cases; it is likely that the majority of incidents have not yet been reported. Even worse, some children find that when they ask for help or come forward to law enforcement, they become embroiled in the criminal justice system themselves, placed in untenable foster care situations, and end up in situations no better than they had been when they were being trafficked (Mcpherson, 2016).

In fact, Mcpherson (2016) notes that law enforcement will end up processing some of the victims of child pornography and child trafficking rings with criminal charges, such as if the minor had been in the possession of a drug or other contraband, or if the child had exhibited behavioral problems. Unless law enforcement takes a more sensible approach to processing the victims of child pornography, it is unlikely that all victims will be willing or able to come forward.

The ongoing criminalization of prostitution in and of itself can perpetuate the problem, as many witnesses to child trafficking and pornography, or child prostitution may be afraid to come forward for fear they will be prosecuted as johns, depending on the jurisdiction. Specific Effects A wide range of individual and contextual variables will affect the child.

The age at which the abuse occurs, whether it was a single incident or an ongoing issue, the exact type of maltreatment, and relationship between child and perpetrator are all factors that will impact the reaction of the child. Some children have psychological resilience as a mitigating personality variables; others are more at risk for exhibiting psychological harm and have low resilience (Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2013). When a child lacks sufficient coping skills, he or she will be more susceptible to physical, psychological, and social consequences.

Unfortunately, resilience is also linked to the environmental variables like a supportive home environment. Thus, a child growing up in a household that repeatedly exposes the child to pornography or abuses the child in any way is not the type of environment in which the child is likely to develop resilience. The child then becomes doubly crippled: growing up in an abusive household decreases resilience as well as sets up the child for serious problems.

When resilience can be acquired in the home, as when the abuse takes place out of the home and beyond the scope of the parents' activities, the factors that can promote resilience include "positive attachment, self-esteem, intelligence, emotion regulation, humor, and independence," (Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2013, p. 3). Not all children are lucky enough to have resilience or good coping skills. Those who do not may exhibit a number of physical, psychological, or social effects from sexual abuse, exposure to pornography, or coerced participation in pornography.

Physical abuse effects are usually straightforward and easy to measure and quantify. Sometimes the child has been abused sexually for the purposes of manufacturing pornography for commercial purposes. The child will have signs of sexual assault including genital bruising, but in some cases, the child will also have other signs of being physically assaulted. Head trauma, bruises, and impaired brain development are all linked and associated with physical abuse in children (Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2013, p. 4).

Other physical issues that the child may exhibit, and which may continue throughout the individual's life, include eating disorders, obesity, and even diabetes, poor lung functioning, hypertension, asthma, cardiovascular, and liver disease (Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2013, p. 4). It seems irregular that these health problems would be associated with childhood sexual abuse or exposure to pornography, but research does show that there are correlations between abuse and the risk for these conditions.

There are also short-term and long-term psychological effects of being abused at any level, including pornographic participation or coercion, and exposure to pornographic material throughout the childhood. Ongoing exposure to pornography may lead to different consequences than temporary or single occasion exposure, and likewise, a one-time coerced activity may have different consequences than ongoing coercion and abuse.

Generally, depression, lack of or inability to trust other people, anger management problems, anxiety, low self-esteem, and measurable mental health problems have been attributed to childhood abuse, particularly exposure to pornography and sexual abuse: "roughly 54% of cases of depression and 58% of suicide attempts in women were connected to adverse childhood experiences," (Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2013, p. 5).

Borderline personality disorder and other social disorders have also been evident in children who had been coerced into participating in a pornographic business or exposed to pornography repeatedly, and these difficulties may escalate during adolescence, early adulthood, and even into the adult years (Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2013, p. 5). If a child is exposed to pornography or is coerced into participating in pornography, that child may also develop high risk behaviors later in life or become involved in the child pornography business and perpetuate the abuses upon other people.

Children who experience abuse in general are more likely to perpetrate that abuse on others when they are adults (Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2013). Although the criminalization of child trafficking and pornography rings is also a major problem, the children involved in child pornography do tend to engage in criminal activities -- either because they were coerced to or because their behavior starts to become more violent in nature or deviant (Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2013).

"Violence and criminal behavior is another frequently identified long-term consequence of child abuse and neglect for adult survivors, particularly for those who have experienced physical abuse or witnessed domestic violence," (Department of Human Services, 2011). Suicidal disorders and other problems may also be unfortunate consequences of exposure to pornography and other forms of child abuse. Family Risk Factors and Effects Risk factors for abusive exposure to pornography or coerced participation in pornography vary. The perpetrators of abuse come from all walks of life.

However, social workers and clinicians can consider some children at an especially high risk of exposure. Families with features like "high mobility, a lack of education, loneliness, poverty, unemployment, inadequate housing or social isolation" may indicate the need for specialized attention (Department of Human Services, 2011). In some cases, the perpetrator is a family member. The child had been raised in an abusive environment. In other cases, the child had been involved in other ways, such as through a relative or friend, or after running away.

Families who are not party to the abuse may need interventions of their own because they will experience trauma, guilt, and other problems. Treatment Interventions The treatment interventions for the victims of child abuse vary depending on the situation. Treatment may need to focus on prevention in some situations, which is why public health officials can treat abuse as a public health issue and not as a private health issue alone.

After all, child trafficking is as much a matter of public health concern as it is a matter of law enforcement. Pornography is also a public health issue, and should be legalized in order to shift its jurisdiction to the mental health industry instead of the criminal justice department. When children become involved in high risk sexual activity -- because they were coerced into it in the pornography industry or because they started.