Addressing the mental health needs of victims-survivors of technology-assisted child sexual abuse and grooming.

Direct work with victims-survivors of technology-assisted child sexual abuse who experienced online grooming reveals a constellation of mental health and support impacts, flowing from the abusive experience. This practitioner report highlights the areas of mental load affecting victims-survivors as a direct result of grooming. Juggling these psychological burdens produces lingering mental health impacts for victims-survivors. The report further outlines priorities for support services to target when working with victims-survivors, to assist in dismantling the detrimental psychological harms inflicted due to grooming. The cognitive pressure which TACSA victims-survivors experience includes feelings of culpability due to their self-reported inability to say no to their abuser or remove themselves from the online environment. This provokes an onward sense of responsibility for their own abuse, which is compounded by guilt due to how their bodies responded to what happened. The existence of images of their abuse forces silence upon victims-survivors, due to shame and embarrassment. Silence is also an attempt by victims-survivors to pre-emptively alleviate any potential societal victim-blaming. Victims-survivors express concern that abuse images potentially serve as evidence of their involvement and compliance with the grooming and abuse, inviting blame apportionment. Practitioners routinely need to unpack and gently challenge the mental distortions that victims-survivors express. Specifically, these include empowerment messages around lack of victim fault for their abuse, placing responsibility solely with the offender, normalizing physiological and psychological responses to abuse to counteract feelings that their minds and bodies welcomed the abuse. Practitioners can offer a unique view of victim-survivor experiences of mental health struggles following grooming, alongside the necessary supportive approaches to aid recovery.