How you can participate

We are looking to engage with two core groups of people in relation to the use of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM):

• Victims and Survivors of childhood sexual abuse
• Professionals with experience in organisations that use CSAM to counter abuse

Victims and survivors of childhood sexual abuse

You are invited to participate in this project if you are a victim and/or survivor of child sexual abuse or exploitation and are currently located in Australia (your experience of abuse does not need to have occurred within Australia). For Victims and Survivors, our research will have two parts: an anonymous online survey, and a series of interviews. We will also be looking to get feedback on any recommendations and/or institutional guidelines we produce.

We are conducting an anonymous online survey to gather information about awareness and understanding of institutional use of CSAM.

We will also be seeking to talk one-on-one with a range of people about their views on the topic. We are particularly interested in hearing from victims and survivors whose lived experience includes knowledge that visual imagery or other content exists that depicts their abuse or exploitation. This material is often referred to as Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM).

If you want to participate in an interview and express your views in person, please connect with Kelly Humphries via our contact page or email her directly at kelly.humphries@monash.edu. (Remember, in-person interviews will only be conducted with those who have a living experience where your abuse has been recorded/photographed etc.).

To learn more about the research process, including consent, data collection, privacy and our ethics approval, your can dowload the formal research victim and survivor research Explanatory Statement.

Organisations and institutions

We want to understand what happens on the ground within organisations and institutions who work with victims and survivors of online child exploitation and abuse where material depicting abuse is handled.

We have a number of reasons for engaging with organisations who are supporting victims and survivors and/or handle CSAM.

Firstly, we are interested in speaking to those who work with the victims and survivors of online child sexual abuse to understand the systems and processes that support those with a lived experience. Our aim is to ensure that we safeguard our participants throughout the research process.

We also hope to identify key recommendations where our research outcomes and the voices of the victims and survivors can clearly determine improvements across sectors in the design and implementation of tools and processes which support the institutional use of CSAM.

These institutions and organisations are:

• those who work with victims and survivors in a therapeutic and advocacy sense;
• those who work in law enforcement, the judicial system, forensics, and data privacy practices; and
• those undertaking research and/or development tools and capabilities.

These include government and NGO agencies, academic institutions, and private organisations.

If you want to participate in an interview, please connect with Kelly Humphries via our contact page.

To learn more about the research process, including consent, data collection, privacy and our ethics approval, you can dowload the formal research institutional Explanatory Statement .