The Influence of Pornography on Child Sexual Assault

A Conversation with Culture Reframed Clinical Consultant Heidi Olson

As a Certified Pediatric Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) in Kansas City, Heidi Olson reviewed thousands of pediatric sexual assault cases. She identified a growing trend of children who are sexually abused by other children — her SANE program’s data showed anywhere from one-third to almost one-half of the perpetrators were between 11 and 15 years old. While many factors may contribute to this statistic, Olson says, “Research and anecdotal evidence show that many kids with problematic sexual behavior have been viewing online pornography.”

Olson has led groundbreaking work in sounding the alarm about pornography’s influence on these child-on-child sexual assault cases. Right now, no standardized protocols exist to investigate and address pornography’s effect. Olson intends to change that.

Today, Olson is the Founder and President of Paradigm Shift Training and Consulting, which equips healthcare workers with skills-based training to identify human trafficking and exploitation. Olson also assumes the role of Culture Reframed’s first clinical consultant. She will be critical in helping Culture Reframed, in collaboration with the Chadwick Center for Children and Families at Rady Children’s Hospital, develop the “Health Professionals Training Initiative.” This significant resource will include free online training, prevention, and treatment tools for clinicians that address porn’s links to sexual abuse. It will be available to healthcare providers and educators worldwide.

In this interview, Olson shares more about her unique line of work, the challenges she has faced, and her hope to protect children from pornography’s dangerous influence.

As one of the first clinical consultants actively discussing the correlation between pornography and child sexual assault, what challenges have you encountered in addressing this issue?

A disconnect exists among parents and professionals who don’t think kids are seeing porn, or if they do recognize that they’re watching porn, they don’t think it’s a big deal. Most adults are entirely unaware of how violent mainstream porn is, how many of our kids are watching it, and that it has many proven harmful effects on children. Currently, when clinicians or parents see behavioral issues or problematic sexual behaviors in their patients or kids, nobody considers the role that pornography exposure plays. Therefore, we often miss the root cause of the issue.

Another challenge is that because porn use is so normalized among adults, sometimes adults get very defensive and even angry when I connect the dots between porn exposure and sexual violence. They don’t want to consider the research and the evidence in front of them.

What led you to this work?

If you had told my 22-year-old newly graduated self that someday I would teach healthcare professionals about pornography, I likely would have picked another career! I never would have guessed this is where my nursing journey would go, but I am so grateful. I started to see the devastating effects of pornography very early in my career as a forensic nurse, and I couldn’t stay silent. The more I read the research, talked to experts, and saw the trends on the front lines, I knew that I needed to raise a red flag as soon as possible because no one around me was addressing it.

Can you elaborate on the need for standardized protocols for SANEs and other providers to investigate and address pornography’s involvement in the sexual abuse of a child?

Research and anecdotal evidence show that many kids with problematic sexual behavior have been viewing online pornography. Other risk factors may be at play, but more often than not, porn is playing a prominent role. It’s so important for clinicians and investigators to get to the bottom of what is causing the behavior, not only for healing but for preventing more trauma and abuse.

SANEs and clinicians have a unique role in building rapport with their patients. They can assess for porn exposure, online solicitation, child sexual abuse material (CSAM), and other potential harms to children — as these things often occur together — when conducting an exam or assessment.

However, most providers do not know what to ask, how to ask, or what to do with a disclosure of problematic porn use. Creating standardized questions and protocols will lift the burden of “what do I do?” for clinicians and hopefully encourage them to have important conversations with their young patients who are inundated by pornography online.

What specific contributions do you hope to make in developing online resources, training, prevention, and treatment tools that address the links between pornography and sexual abuse?

I want to create tools and materials that are quick and easy to use. We know clinicians are busy and overwhelmed, so we want the tools to be user-friendly, fast, and helpful. We also want to empower clinicians with tools that take the fear and guesswork out of having these difficult conversations. As clinicians start to feel more comfortable talking to kids about porn, it will add a protective layer to the lives of children that they so desperately need.

What benefits will these materials offer to medical professionals around the world?

My ultimate goal is that any healthcare worker can access these tools and screening questions anytime for free online. The easier and more accessible we can make things, the more they will be used. I have seen healthcare workers Google “How to know if someone is being trafficked?” or “What resources can we give to a child looking at porn?” If we can provide evidence-based materials for a clinician the second they type a question about porn into their browser, that would be the goal. Many clinicians are starting to see the effects of porn on their patients, but very few know what to do about it.

How has working with Culture Reframed impacted your work?

Culture Reframed has given me so much hope. It can feel so overwhelming and difficult to see how pornography is traumatizing children and so few professionals are doing anything about it.

As I was starting to connect the dots, I remembered hearing Dr. Gail Dines present at a conference, and it helped solidify what I was seeing as a nurse. I knew that what I was seeing was directly related to pornography. I never would have dreamed that I would be working with her brilliant team several years later. It’s such an honor.

Culture Reframed gives me hope because their work is research- and evidence-based, their partners are well vetted, and everyone is committed to equipping parents and professionals with tools to protect kids. That is exactly what we need to start making a difference in this massive public health crisis.

Where are your kids getting their sex education? Their smartphones? In this digital age, it’s critical for young people to have trusted adults to help them build resilience and resistance to hypersexualized media and porn. Check out Culture Reframed’s free online Programs for Parents of Tweens and Parents of Teens.