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Warning messages to prevent illegal sharing of sexual images: Results of a randomised controlled experiment

Prichard, Jeremy; Scanlan, Joel; Krone, Tony; Spiranovic, Caroline; Watters, Paul; Wortley, Richard; (2022) Warning messages to prevent illegal sharing of sexual images: Results of a randomised controlled experiment. Trends and Issues in Crime and Criminal Justice , 647 10.52922/ti78559. Green open access

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Abstract

Illegal distribution of sexual images by adults and minors is an expanding problem. We examined whether messages would dissuade men (18–32 years) from visiting a fake website offering access to free pornography to users who uploaded a sexual image of a woman. Participants seeking to enter the site (n=528) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions. Group 1 went straight to the landing page. Group 2 encountered a text warning that sharing sexual images of people who appear under 18 years old is illegal; Group 3 received the same message with an accompanying animation. Sixty percent of Group 1 participants attempted to access the site, compared with 43 percent in Group 2 and 38 percent in Group 3. We argue that online messages offer a valuable strategy that can help reduce image-based abuse and the distribution of child sexual abuse material, including by minors.

Type: Article
Title: Warning messages to prevent illegal sharing of sexual images: Results of a randomised controlled experiment
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.52922/ti78559
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.52922/ti78559
Language: English
Additional information: Material obtained from the website of the Australian Institute of Criminology (https://www.aic.gov.au/) is licensed under an Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
UCL classification: UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Dept of Security and Crime Science
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10144666
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