by Elaine Brady, PhD, LMFT

If you knew that, since 2014, we have been mandated (via AB 1775) to report anyone who looks at child pornography, pat yourself on the back and join the informed few who attended the SCV-CAMFT luncheon on 28 February for my presentation.

However, if you are like the majority of therapists who attended and had no clue as to this mandated responsibility, I would like to share with you why it is important for you to know about it and give you some ideas on how to manage it within your practice.

At this point you may be tempted to stop reading this article, telling yourself that it does not apply to your work.  After all, you do not even work with clients who look at pornography, much less child pornography!  In fact, what my presentation tried to bring home to members and colleagues is that you very likely work with clients who access pornography but you are not aware of it.  Particularly given that:

• Adult entertainment ranks 7th on the list of leading categories utilized online,
• Pornhub, one of the biggest providers of adult material, boasts of 92 million visitors a day,
• 30% of men and 3% of women are daily viewers of pornography,
• 13% of men admitted to a pornography addiction,
• Due to its addictive and habituation forming quality, viewers can be drawn into more shocking and illegal aspects of pornography—such as child pornography—chasing the high they cannot get from regular pornography anymore.

Apart from child pornography, both therapists and divorce lawyers have reported a significant negative impact of the internet on marital relationships.  One poll of lawyers actually broke this down into categories:

• Excessive time on the computer    47% of cases
• Excessive time in chat rooms, which tend to be highly sexualized    33% of cases
• Obsession with pornography sites     56% of cases
• New love met online 68% of cases

Tragically, children are also being swept away by this surge of online sludge, both as viewers and as victims:

• 90% of youth between the ages of 8 and 16 claim to have seen pornography,
• Children under 10 years of age now account for 22% of porn viewers under 18,
• Many children find their parents’ favorite pornography websites and pictures,
• 1 in 10 of 12 to 13 year old users fear they may be addicted to pornography,
• Commonly used children’s apps like Snapchat, Twitter, and Kik have been saturated with both pornography and pedophiles.

Even sexting among teenagers is considered child pornography.  Given that California has no laws regarding teen sexting, teen offenders can suffer significant repercussions socially, financially, and legally.  Hence, if a young teen client mentions she sent a topless picture to her boyfriend, guess what: you are mandated to report her for the production and distribution of child pornography (AB 1775, 2014).

In addition to child pornography, I also covered various other forms of Cybersex Criminal Activities (CCA) (AB 1775, 2014) a client might become involved in, such as:

• Soliciting another person for sex with intent to pay for or sell prostitution,
• Meeting with a minor with sexual intent,
• Revenge porn: posting sexual images of someone without their permission,
• Sextortion: threatening to send sexual images to friends/family,
• Sexual cyberbullying: harassing and/or stalking someone.

Unfortunately, your clients are not likely to disclose their online pornography habits, their casual or illegal sexting, or their own victimization.  Given the personal nature of these activities and the threats accompanying most criminal behaviors (like solicitations of a minor or sextortion), you can expect them to remain stealth addicts and silent victims.  

Therefore, as professional caregivers we are morally, ethically, and legally obligated to assess for and address Problematic Cybersex Activities (PCA). The first step in beginning this process is to overcome our own denial.  Just as we finally recognized the impact of alcoholism on individuals and families thirty years ago and started assessing for it, we must make internet use and abuse assessment a normal part of our intake process.   

 
Even a simple CAGE-like assessment (for alcohol addiction) can be useful in opening a conversation about internet use and possible problems.  I have developed a model called PCOC, which addresses the core elements of addiction: Progressive, Compulsive, Obsessive, and Consequences.  An example of your questions could be: P- Has your use increased over time?   C- Have you tried to cut back or stop?  O- Are you preoccupied with thoughts of being online or/and what you have seen?  C- Have people complained about your use?  Have you spent more money than you planned to?  Have you gotten into trouble at work/school?

So, what happens if a teenager or an adult client does reveal some form of reportable activity as prescribed by AB 1775?  Legally, you are mandated to report your discovery to CPS and/or the police.  While failure to do so is only a misdemeanor, extenuating circumstances of a case may result in significant charges, fines, and loss of your license. (For more information about AB 1775, refer to several resources cited at the end of this article).

Tragically, after my presentation in February, word of COVID-19 and the subsequent order to shelter in place occurred: we all became housebound.  Since then, various sources have warned of a significant increase in mental health and substance abuse problems.  I would like to add to that a probable increase in individuals becoming addicted to internet-related activities and a rapid progression of already existing problems.  Therefore, I sincerely hope that all practitioners will begin to evaluate current and future clients for these underlying internet and pornography addiction problems.

Unfortunately, there are no local treatment facilities for internet-related addiction.  As far as I know, there are only a few local therapists who have any training in this area.  Of those, I believe I am the only one who also has training in sex-related internet issues.  If any of you have such training please let me know so I can add you to my referral list.  For further educational resources, please read the following:

• Additional assessment tools are available at: netaddiction.com and recoveryzone.com,
• Resources for addressing PCAs are available through: netaddiction.com and zurinstitute.com/internet-addiction,
• If you are interested in learning more about AB 1775:

Child abuse and neglect reporting act: Sexual abuse, AB 1775. (2014). Retrieved from https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/
Weiss, R. (2015). Wake up California therapists! Protecting client confidentiality per proposed California law AB 1775. (9 June 2015). PsychCentral. Retrieved from http://blogs.psychcentral.com.

If you have concerns about AB 1775, it is currently in the California Supreme Court due to efforts to repeal it. Don Matthews, LMFT, of the Impulse Treatment Center in Walnut Creek, CA, has been fighting the bill for six years and has asked for financial support to continue his efforts.  You can refer to his request for financial support page at: https://www.gofundme.com/f/stopAB1775.

Elaine Brady, Ph.D., MFT
1190 S. Bascom Ave., Ste. 130
San Jose, CA 95128
elainebrady.com
docelaine@elainebrady.com
Cell: 408-637-1022

Dr. Elaine Brady, has over thirty-five years of experience working in the addiction field and is a Certified Addiction Specialist as well as a Certified Sex Addiction Therapist.  She has published a number of articles, taught at several local colleges, is a frequent presenter at professional conferences, has appeared on television, and has served as an expert witness on numerous court cases.   In 2012, Dr. Brady opened Net Worth Recovery, an Internet Addiction treatment center in San Jose, and in 2015, she published her first book, “Forged in Fire,” the survival story of a young girl growing up in an abusive home.