Is child sexual abuse material (CSAM) legal, healthy, or OK to watch?
No, it is never ok to watch or show anyone under 18 years old in any sexually explicit material. Once called “child pornography,” this is now called “child sexual abuse material” (CSAM) to show that this content is evidence of abuse and exploitation. Creating, showing, or viewing CSAM is a crime.
CSAM is illegal and can cause harm to viewers and others.
Children and teenagers under age 18 cannot give their legal consent to be in these types of images or videos. Basically, viewing CSAM means that you are watching a kid being sexually abused. Even if a child looks like they are happy and enjoying what is happening, they have likely been threatened, coerced, or manipulated into what they are doing for the camera. They could be drugged, and they could be experiencing other kinds of abuse or trauma.
Also, if this type of content is created by another kid, whether they share it directly as a sext with a romantic partner or if it is unknowingly leaked or shared with peers, it is also illegal. It will be viewed as CSAM by authorities and in a court of law. Our Blog, “Could I get in trouble for sexting?” can answer some other questions you might have about this.
Watching CSAM may also affect a person’s judgment about what is ok, healthy, and safe with children. For some people, watching these images can normalize the sexual abuse of children - they can start to believe that it is ok for children to engage in sexual behaviors with adults or other children, on camera. They may find themselves looking for more and more similar content.
Often a person doesn’t start off with the intention to look for images and videos of children being sexually abused, and for some people, when they accidently find this type of content, they recognize it as harmful and may even take steps to report the content to get it taken off line and to even try to get help to the children in the pictures if possible. But for some people, they may find themselves looking for this content again. And feelings of shame, guilt; feeling overwhelmed or even scared are some of the experiences people who are looking at these images talk about; worrying about what looking at this content means. If you have found these types of images online and you keep thinking about them, or even find yourself looking for more of them, talking to one of our counselors on our confidential helpline can help you think about what could help you stop.
Check out these blogs to learn more on this topic:
What do I do if I know someone has watched sexual images of children?
This is such an important – and often difficult – question. If you are in this position now, this is an opportunity to help your friend but you’re not alone. We can help.
Of course, this is not an easy position to be in, and it might feel confusing to try and figure out what your next steps should be. The steps below are recommendations, and maybe they are not all the right ones for you - but the most important thing is that you do something. Besides caring for and helping your friend, it is also possible that you could help protect a child.
You can let your friend know that you are concerned about what they are doing; that you’re worried that 1) they are doing something illegal and 2) that is harmful - they are part of a child's abuse by watching these images.
Even if your friend is watching images of youth that are the same age as they are, these images are of children and youth in harmful and likely abusive situations. To learn more about this, take a look at our Blogs about Sexual Content.
While you cannot make this person stop what they are doing, you can let them know you care about them and about the safety of others, and that you are asking them to think about what they are doing and to consider talking confidentially to a counselor about what is going on for them. You can ask them to contact Whatsok.org, and get more information about what kind of help is available and to talk about why this behavior is concerning.
If your friend is under 18, talking to an adult is important as well. Your friend is committing a crime, and they may also be experiencing some other difficulties in their life so getting an adult involved to help your friend have more control and thought over this type of behavior is essential. This can be your parents, your friend’s parents or another trusted adult.
Since this involves illegal activity, you might wonder if this needs to be reported to authorities. Yes, it should. This is never an easy decision but if a law is being broken and a child is being hurt, the next step is to contact either the local police, child protective services or make a report to CyberTipline if someone is viewing child sexual abuse material online.