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SHB , young people and the internet

AIM INTERNET  GUIDANCE

Since its inception the AIM Project have sought to enhance and develop practitioners' competence and confidence in assessing and intervening with children and young people who harm sexually. Over recent years we have become increasingly aware of the need to develop a greater understanding of children and young people who have accessed child abuse images on the internet. 

Some recent studies have illustrated that childrenand young people use the internet differently from their parents and otheradults (Livingstone & Bober, 2005). Other studies have shown that some children are accessing a wide range of pornographic material on-line and that many are more IT literate than their parent/carers, coupled with the Internet's increased accessibility, affordability and anonymity this raises new challenges for child welfare professionals. For example, how similar or different arethese young people to adults who access child abuse images. Furthermore is there a link between young people downloading and distributing child abuse images and their risk of committing contact sexual offences?

Richard Swann (AIM Training Associate) has recently designed and delivered a series of one day introductory courses for practitioners who seek to answer these questions. The AIM Project is now able to offer guidance materials for practitioners undertaking assessments regarding young people's harmful/problematic use of the Internet.

Please see details of the Guidance in the Models section under Assessment and prices/how to order in  the Store section.