The Internet has proved to be an effective medium for disseminating child pornography and linking people interested in child pornography. The possession of child pornography, unlike its production and distribution, is a relatively recent offence and little was known about the people who sought this material. However, operation Auxin, using a child pornography website set up by the Australian Federal Police has led to charges against nearly 200 men in Australia for possession of various forms of indecent material involving children. Many of those charged were referred for psychiatric assessment and the findings from some of those assessments are presented in this paper. A review of twenty one cases of men charged with possession of child pornography found a spectrum of interests and sexual behaviour. Based on the material they collected, there were both homosexual and heterosexual paedophiles and others with versatile sexual interests, in that they had adult material and reported relationships with adults. We found both solitary collectors and some in contact with others with similar interests. We present the demographic features, psychiatric findings, sexual histories and criminal behaviour of the twenty one subjects seen by the authors for treatment or for reports. We rated the subjects according to their history of convictions and other available information (eg travel patterns, evidence of communication with children) into definite, probable and unlikely to have committed offences against children. A striking feature of this group was that many had very large collections of material, suggesting a compulsive quality to finding and storing images.
Conflict of Interest: None disclosed
Financial Support/Funding: None disclosed
Recorded: Sydney, Australia, April 2007
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