Children’s Advocacy Centers and Culture Reframed Tackle Pornography’s Role in Child Abuse
The network of Children’s Advocacy Centers (CACs) across the United States and abroad is an important partner for Culture Reframed and efforts to address children’s exposure to pornography. Through education, training, and development of resources, CACs and Culture Reframed are collaborating to help child victims of abuse and practitioners in the field.
Dr. Amelia Siders, a licensed clinical psychologist, discussed the opportunities of this partnership during a session at Culture Reframed’s virtual conference, The Impact of Pornography on Young People: Research, Practice, and Solutions. Dr. Siders is a State Chapter Liaison focusing on mental health services for the Western Regional Children’s Advocacy Center and has worked to support children’s advocacy centers for more than 12 years.
The 939 CACs serve children and adolescents who are believed to be victims of abuse, including sexual abuse, domestic violence, and witnesses to violence. In 2022, they served more than 386,000 children.
“One of the biggest strengths and greatest opportunities that CACs offer for those of us who work for them is the ability to work with and communicate with multidisciplinary team members: law enforcement, child welfare professionals, prosecuting attorneys, agencies that serve victims of domestic violence and sexual assault,” Siders said.
In her time working at CACs, Siders has seen an increase in abuse cases involving children’s exposure to pornography due in part to more accessible online sites. One of her first cases involved a 5-year-old who had used an iPad to click through to pornography videos on YouTube. “I’ve come to understand how you can access these sites with extremely little work or understanding of what you’re going to see, how you’re going to see it, and there are virtually no barriers to accessing this type of content online anymore,” Siders said.
“I’ve come to understand how you can access these sites with extremely little work or understanding of what you’re going to see, how you’re going to see it, and there are virtually no barriers to accessing this type of content online anymore.”
Through the years since that case, Siders has seen a paradigm shift among CAC staff as they consider how children’s exposure to pornography intersects with the types of abuse they see — and whether exposure to pornography can make children more vulnerable to abuse. “What I really came to understand was how these sites, in and of themselves, can groom children without any adult controlling their access,” she said.
Since connecting with Dr. Gail Dines and Culture Reframed, Siders and others at CACs have formed work groups to explore areas where their organizational work intersects. These include prevention education, parent support and education, training for staff and multidisciplinary team members, and resource development.
Moving forward, Siders sees additional opportunities for CACs and Culture Reframed to collaborate on data collection to inform research and develop resources, training, and other supports. This can help inform physicians, law enforcement, and child welfare professionals, as well as parents and others supporting children who have been abused. “There’s a connection between sexual abuse prevention and exposure to pornography. We need to be thinking about that,” she said. “It’s such critical work.”
Watch the full discussion:
Learn more about Culture Reframed’s partnership with CACs across the country:
- Culture Reframed’s Partnership with CACs Against Child Abuse
- Equipping Children’s Advocacy Centers to Safeguard Young People From the Harms of Pornography
- Helping Children’s Advocacy Centers Understand the Effects of Pornography Exposure
