Virtual abuse, infinite harm: Survivors’ experiences of online-facilitated child sexual abuse

In partnership with SARSAS, the Survivors Trust, and Survivors Voices, this research explored the experiences of survivors of non-recent, online-facilitated child sexual abuse (OFCSA).Our project enhances contemporary understandings of OFCSA through survivor-led research into the long-term challenges for survivors as they access forms of coping and recovery. We conducted in-depth interviews with 16 survivors of online-facilitated child sexual abuse in order to investigate the following research questions:  

  • What are the characteristics of online-facilitated child sexual abuse in comparison with offline experiences of child sexual abuse? 
  • What are the challenges in relation to reporting and disclosures of online facilitated child sexual abuse? 
  • What challenges do victims and survivors experience in relation to coping and recovery? 
  • How might government agencies, support services, survivor organisations, and wider society work best prevent and respond to reports of online-facilitated child sexual abuse? 
The research was funded by REPHRAIN (EPSRC) and took place in 2024. It was conducted by Dr Susanna Alyce (University of Essex) and Dr William Tantam (University of Bristol).
This research was co-produced with survivors of online-facilitated child sexual abuse. The project employed a Lived Experience Advisory Panel (LEAP) who contributed expertise through feeding back on recruitment and engagement approaches, attending strategic meetings and project feedback, and feeding expertise into output formats and messaging. They also led the insights that created the zine.

The zine ‘Virtual abuse: Infinite harm’ combines insights from the interviews, LEAP expertise, survivor-artworks, and art by Joanne Baker-Marsh. The zine can be downloaded for free via this link (N.B. clicking will download a PDF): Virtual Abuse Infinite Harm zine.
Following the research interviews, participants were invited to receive an art and wellbeing kit and could contribute artworks. With the consent of participants, we are delighted to share a selection of these artworks here: