I talk to many people who think it’s hard to find Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM, formerly Child Pornography). The sad reality is, it’s more common than you think.

Not only can CSAM be found on websites and dark web spaces, but it’s also floating around on common social media sites.

Anecdotal Experiences with Child Sexual Abuse Material

We’ve had clients who’ve found these images on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Kik, X (formerly Twitter), Discord, and even Pinterest.

In our forensic work, these individuals were often seeking this material, but what should you do if you come across questionable images yourself?

What Steps Should you Take?

Report the Image to the Social Site

If you are on a social media site like Facebook or X, the first thing you should do is report the image with the site’s reporting tools.

For example, Facebook has the option to report a post on every single image on the site. So, if you think it’s questionable, you can report the image directly.

Once you report the offending material, it is out of your hands. Whether or not the site will actually investigate your report is unknown. Our staff members have reported images on these sites and only occasionally do the reports get investigated. However, sometimes you get a message that basically says they don’t have the capacity to check it out.

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Do you believe your sexual behaviors are compulsive or harmful to you or others? Then you should take the CSBD-19 free, validated self-assessment tool.

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Report the image to NCMEC

NCMEC, or the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, is a private non-profit organization whose mission is to help children in exactly these circumstances. They have a cyber tip line to report the images online or to call someone and make the report via phone. NCMEC can then investigate the image.

Advanced Child Sexual Abuse Material Reporting Tools

Images reported to NCMEC are fed into a database and PhotoDNA program.

Major tech companies, like Google and Meta, Facebook’s parent, use PhotoDNA. It flags the content to be taken down. Additionally, if the investigation warrants a report to the police, NCMEC takes care of this.

Report to your local ChildLine

In addition to reporting the image to NCMEC, you can also make a report to your state’s child abuse reporting line.

This will start a similar process to reporting to NCMEC but at a local level. This will provide a second resource to investigate the images.

The Department of Human Services administers Pennsylvania’s ChildLine.

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See the latest research on criminality related to social media:

• Social Anxiety and Loneliness in Online Solicitation Offenders

See more articles related to social media

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Keep a record of the reports that you make about Child Sexual Abuse Material

The first thing to be mindful of is what you do with the image that you feel is inappropriate and need to report.

Do NOT take a screen shot of the image.

If it is CSAM, you will then have it in your possession which is illegal. If you do feel that you need to do so, make sure you keep all documentation of reporting the images to the authorities. Screenshot call logs, keep email records, screenshot your social media reports. Keep all of these things in one place on ONE device.

We’ve had clients make reports and then were investigated for possessing CSAM images. Having the documentation that they screenshot an image for the express purpose of reporting it to NCMEC allowed them to avoid criminal charges.

The proliferation of CSAM online makes the idea of ridding the internet of it feel very daunting. While some companies do report CSAM images to NCMEC and the authorities, not all do.

If you come across content that you feel is inappropriate, please report it to the appropriate agencies or authorities.

For an in-depth guide on talking to your adolescents about cybersex and pornography, check out Dr. Jen’s book. Amazon | BookBaby

Have you found yourself in legal trouble due to your sexual behavior? Seek assistance before the court mandates it, with Sexual Addiction Treatment Services.

Do you feel your sexual behavior, or that of someone you love, is out of control? Consult with a professional.

The post Child Sexual Abuse Material: How to Deal With It first appeared on Dr. Jen's Recovery Readings.

Welcome to the next installment of our series Blocking Porn: Browsers. This is just a small piece of advice for content blocking for the top 4 most popular¹ browsers and some privacy-oriented alternative browsers.

This post contains affiliate links. The author or blog owner may earn a commission if you make a purchase using these links.

As always, it’s important to have a conversation about WHY content is being blocked whether it’s for your friend, your partner, or your child. Installing this software without the user’s consent isn’t just malicious, it’s illegal in some jurisdictions.

Technology can’t replace healthy communication in a relationship, it’s merely a tool to help better our lives.

Chrome

Google’s Chrome browser owns almost two-thirds of the market and has great customization options. It is available across all common desktop and mobile platforms.

There are also a few drawbacks, including Google’s constant spying on everything you’re doing, but that’s a whole different discussion.

Extensions

The easiest way to block porn in Chrome is by using extensions. Google Chrome Extension Store

These are the top two recommended blockers:

• BlockSite
• Smart Internet Porn Filter from vRate

If you sign into your browser, your extensions will sync across your desktop devices. Meaning on PC, Mac, and ChromeBook all of your extensions SHOULD work. Chrome on iOS (iPhone/iPad) doesn’t support extensions and on Android support can be spotty. We’ll cover other options for blocking pornography on mobile devices in later installments in the series.

Alternate Search Engines

You aren’t required to use Google for search, even if you use Google’s Chrome browser. If you’ve set up Bing to be your safe search engine of choice, changing the default search engine is fairly straightforward. Instructions from Google.

Are you a professional looking to stay up-to-date with the latest information on, sex addiction, trauma, and mental health news and research? Or maybe you’re looking for continuing education courses?

Stay up-to-date with all of Dr. Jen’s work through her practice’s newsletter!

Safari

Safari is the default browser on Apple devices, including Mac, iPhone, and iPad. It’s not available for PC, Linux, Android, or Chromebooks.

Just like with Chrome, and the next two browsers, Safari has the ability to add extensions to add functionality, including restricting access to certain types of sites. Safari DOES support syncing extensions, bookmarks, and other settings across all supported devices.

Extensions

The top recommended extension for Safari to block pornography is Porn Blocker Plus – for Safari, available in the App Store.

Alternatively, the top extension from Google’s Chrome has been ported to Safari’s extension eco system: BlockSite.

Edge

Microsoft’s Edge browser is available on all major desktop and mobile platforms and is built on the Chromium framework. This is the same framework that underpins Google’s own Chrome browser. As such, it has excellent support for extensions, because they don’t need to be completely re-written from Chrome.

Extensions

Edge’s extensions store, which is very similar to Chrome due to their sharing the same framework, is available here. Chrome’s top content blocking extension is available on Edge as well, BlockSite.

Do you believe you have an online pornography addiction? Take the free Cyber Pornography Addiction Test (CYPAT) and have the results to speak with your therapist.

Firefox

Firefox is a unique browser, built by the Mozilla foundation. It’s a privacy-focused browser and the developers are very transparent in their operations. And it’s available for all major desktop and mobile platforms, and just like all the others has its own extension store.

Extensions

BlockSite is here again. Mozilla also recommends Impulse Blocker by raicem.

Special Note

In an effort to prevent browser extensions from peering over your shoulder, Firefox does not allow them access in Private browser windows by default.

To ensure your extensions are enabled in in-private windows:

1. Go to the Add-ons Manager
2. Click on the 3 dots of the extension you want to enable
3. Click manage
4. In details, select Allow for “Run in Private Windows”

Do you believe your sexual behaviors are compulsive or harmful to you or others? Then you should take the CSBD-19 free, validated self-assessment tool.

Alternative Browsers

Brave

Brave, developed by Brave Software, Inc., is a privacy oriented, chromium based browser. It will block ads and trackers by default. Brave uses the Chrome web store for extensions. They also offer their own search engine, as the default option.

Iron

Developed by German company SRWare, the Iron browser is built on the Chromium framework with privacy and security in mind. It’s available for Windows, MacOS, Linux, and Android but is missing from iOS. While content filtering is not built into Iron, extensions are available.

Opera

Another Chromium-based browser solution with a unique user interface, Opera offers a wide variety of extensions, called addons in Opera, and themes to choose from. It’s available for Windows, MacOS, Linux, ChromeOS, Android, and iOS.

Other Tips

• To avoid the temptation of circumventing controls, uninstall all other browsers from the device.
• Make sure to check the settings of any installed extensions and ensure they’re enabled for private/incognito windows.
• Be careful of extensions that don’t have a lot of reviews or downloads; the extension stores aren’t well moderated.
• To function properly, extensions MUST access all of your browsing data, be sure to check the privacy policies of all extensions to see what they do with your data.

Anecdote: While writing this article I installed a Chrome filtering extension and got hit with pop-ups that tried to redirect me to install additional, known-malicious extensions. It was blocked by my network’s filtering system so it didn’t affect me, but take heed of my warning to check reviews and download numbers before allowing extensions I didn’t mention here access to all of your browsing data.

Wrap Up

The most popular extension, by far, is BlockSite. The free version will block pornography, paid subscriptions will add additional features and may help to improve your productivity. It also offers additional installation options on desktop and mobile devices that can do more than just filter browser content. I’ll cover this more later in the series.

Whatever option you choose, it’s important to remember that this is only one piece of a much larger plan, and part of that plan is being honest and having frank discussions about the ramifications of pornography addiction in your life and the lives of those you love.

For an in-depth guide on talking to your adolescents about cybersex and pornography, check out Dr. Jen’s book. Amazon | BookBaby

Do you feel your sexual behavior, or that of someone you love, is out of control? Then you should consult with a professional.

Have you found yourself in legal trouble due to your sexual behavior? Seek assistance before the court mandates it, with Sexual Addiction Treatment Services.

The post Blocking Porn: Browsers – How to Decide? first appeared on Dr. Jen's Recovery Readings.