Child Sexual Abuse Material Users on the Darknet: Psychiatric Morbidities Related to Offence Behavior

Individuals engaging in child sexual abuse often present pedophilic interest, but the other psychiatric morbidities among undetected users of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) are largely unknown. We mapped the psychiatric profile of 160 mainly male and primarily non-convicted anonymous Darknet-recruited adult CSAM users. The participants' psychiatric morbidities were analyzed descriptively, and correlations between sexual pathologies known as risk factors for committing child sexual abuse (paraphilias, hypersexuality) and CSAM offense behavior (viewing time, content) were examined in a series of exploratory linear regression models. Pedophilic interests, hypersexuality, autism traits, ADHD, and depression were commonly reported. Further, hypersexuality was associated with CSAM viewing time (r = .295, b = 0.07, p = .001), zoophilic interest was associated with CSAM severity (r = .195, b = 0.46, p = .003) and both zoophilic and pedophilic sexual interest were associated with the age of the youngest child in CSAM viewed (r = -.218, b = -0.56, p = .01 and r = -.273, b = -1.01, p < .001). We conclude that CSAM users presented sexual pathologies, some related to their CSAM-use behavior, as well as multiple other mental health needs.