Should psychotherapists be required to report patients who look at child porn?

For years, California law required psychotherapists to report any patient who admitted developing, duplicating, printing or exchanging material depicting an obscene act involving a child.

The therapists accepted that requirement. They regarded it as an obligation to report producers and distributors of child pornography.

But when the Legislature amended the law in 2014 to reflect new technology, many therapists balked, complaining the new wording required them to inform on patients who posed no threat to others. …

Ira Ellman, one of several scholars who joined a friend-of-the-court brief in the case, said the state law is based on misconceptions. …

“Half of the people who molest children don’t test positive for pedophilia, and a lot of people who do test positive for pedophilia are almost at zero risk for molesting a child,” said Ellman, a retired law and psychology professor from Arizona State University and now a scholar at UC Berkeley’s Center for the Study of Law and Society.

Full Article

Related

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2019-12-10/child-porn-reporting-law-fails-victims

 

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The often repeated “that children are exploited every time someone looks at obscene images of them” is BS and needs to be worn down.

Whatever happened to patient/doctor, patient/ therapist, patient/counselor privilege?
Unless someone is an imminent danger to themselves or others, what is said in counseling or a psychiatrist’s office is “supposed” to be confidential.
To have laws where counseling professionals are forced to share a patient’s mental health issues with law enforcement authorities will do nothing but keep those who seek treatment from seeking it.

Patients will begin to file law suits for breech of confidentiality, violation of HIPPA, etc.
Therapists will begin to screen and refuse to take on patients with mental health issues of a sexual nature because they are afraid of the liability involved.
Those who truly need a safe, therapeutic venue to talk about their issues will be left out in the cold.
And this makes sense, how?

I remember when this happened. It was towards the beginning of my program. All the therapists in the program hated it. They told us to speak in codes, like, “say you had a dream or ask us to leave and talk to the group” they even suggested seeing another person for the particular incident whom they trusted but wasn’t practicing anymore so he wasn’t subject to mandatory reporting.

I also remember seeing an article here where Oregon tried to pass a similar law but effecting teachers and forcing them to disclose students confiding in them about nude selfies. The teachers hated for the same reason, knowing the students could potentially be prosecuted for CP.

These mandatory reporting laws remind me a lot of all those bullshit abstinence only “education”. They were supposed to protect the children and blah, blah, blah. But actually resulted in much higher rates of STDs and teen pregnancies.

FBI are the nation’s largest disturber of child porn. https://reason.com/2016/08/31/the-fbi-distributes-child-pornography-to/. If, the cops are distributing they are looking at it.

Of course Not !
Just like if you peeped in a window or knew someone that did you should not be forced to tell….why ?….because every deed does not deserve punishment or fines…etc
The main thing to remember is wrongs if we want to call it that can be made Right without the Law, judgement and law suits etc….
In this case its important to note proffessionals are involved and answers to lifes problems should often be worked out in private Not a Mob or uncompassionate Legalistic approach that most of the time will lead to more problems and Condemnation…
Mercy Comes Before Judgement !!!
Every person should be looked at from the HIGHEST PERSPECTIVE….That is to say, No matter what we feel, think, believe the others deserve or have done wrong..!.well they are fellow HUMANS and are valuable and Worthy to be SAVED if i can express myself this way !
Also, The People in Charge of Others Often cause Great Damages, one may say….well you still knew better, OH REALLY!
YOU DONT KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT LIFE OR PEOPLE,,,
The times, Family, Culture,The Wealth, The Laws,The Body we have…Parents, Education..et ..etc…ALL play a role in our Demise…So, Yes These are all Major Factors that Contribute to who we are/will become !!!
Anyone can be servants to a Forced life!!!
Did You choose your Parents?
Your Body?
Your intellegence?
Your Officials?
Do You Really Believe you Have Power in/over your life…GO AHEAD SEE HOW FAR YOUR FREE WILL WILL GET YOU 😏
TRY to change anything …Economics, Statues, Constitutions, try to Steer the Technology, even a Simple PATENT,,,
Wgat about all your KNOWLEDGE OF HEALTH!!!
HEAL THE LITTLE PROBLEMS YOU HAVE🙏
SOOOOO many things I can say about …GUILT…GUILT…GUILT!!
Enjoy This Journey, but is it Really Your Journey!!!
You Will Find Out ..ABOUT FREE WILL ..HA….!!!
So, to end my words!!
Yeah, The Higher Powers Have Their Share Of Blame !!!
If Course Just as Powers Here and Now ….its to easy to Give that burden to the Masses!!!
OH, BEFORE I GO WE ALL COULD JUST GO FOR A FREE TRIP TO HELL AND BACK ON OTHERS TERMS AND CONDITIONS…JUST TO HAVE THOSE HIGHER BEINGS TO PROCLAIM…EHH!!, SO IF SOME ARE SCREWED IN LIFE AND OTHERS ARE not So be It !!!

How is a person to seek help, then, for sexual deviance if the person can’t be honest with his therapist without risk of prosecution? If we as a society really want to prevent sexual offending, shouldn’t we be about actually helping people before they wind up in the justice system? The focus is always on punishment after the fact, which is very telling that it was never about prevention in the first place but was always about keeping the prisons filled.

Take the Fifth Amendment for protection from self incrimination.

So what is coming on board next for mandatory reporting.

Doctor patient confidentiality is out the window for this subject. What’s next? How about Lawyer Client confidentiality going out next?

Confidentiality went out along time ago…..thats why so many CONVICTIONS !!
ALSO, THATS WHY MORE and more are ending up in TROUBLE and treatment and many private aspects of these mens cases are known to many…and Should Not have been…i.e. jail house journals and Self Incremination also a nightmare of Thoughts, Habits, Feelings, Emotions etc. etc… of these Trapped, Humiliated, often the Shell of men who are at the Rock Bottom of Life and should be Protected much More than Others !!
Dont forget,,, this is lack of privacy or forced revalations is evidence of more outlandish LAWS. .i.e……Higher penalties and Deeeper Proclamations of Perpetrators Intents and un checked Desires ..of Course many other Heavy Handed Tactics, Policies etc…have derived from and will continue because all ethical, moral, Legal etc. Standards of justice/Balance, that is fairness in regards to defense and future prejudice and proper Ethical Codes with Regards to Privacy and Procedures that put BREAKS on Run A Muck Laws, so the Indefinite and All Out Intrusion of the Accused life details are Not Permitted without careful scrutiny.
Etc. Etc.

So their premise is that every time someone views a pic, it re-exploits the victim?
Hmmm.🤔 That just raises a million questions: What if the viewer of that image is on the other side of the earth? What if it’s an old photo from 50 years ago? What if the photo depicts no abuse, only an unclothed person? What if it’s a photo of some frolicking kids at a hippy nudist camp, from 50 years ago, from the other side of the planet? Are those now older adults really suffering some amorphous sense of “re-exploitation”? Really?? Sorry, but that’s just ridiculous and stupid!!
(Like a million other baby-boom kids, my family had some Polaroids of me and siblings in a bathtub when we were 5 or 6 years old. The pics were lost many years ago. But if some old codger found them and is jollying himself to those pics….. well, hold on…. 🤔 Yeah No, I’m not feeling it. Sorry, just not feelin’ that horrible “re-exploitation”.🙄)

Wow! You can’t just say the guy molested children, but he had issues? I imagine the innocent children he victimized have issues now as well? In summary, I think Dr’s shouldn’t be allowed (Remember the Menendez brithers( to share personal info, unless the individual poses a threat to someone. They now state that up front!

Honestly I don’t know why somebody wold even tell anybody especially somebody in a professional setting like a therapist/psychiatrist or doctor they watch child porn thats just crazy personality if somebody told me some crazy shiit like that I would also notify law enforcement immediately

Oh my gosh, just like the gentleman said. Dont tell your councillor your watching child porn (if you are) you should stop. Sorry but dont trust anything you hear and half of what you see. When i was on probation, i asked him if i can have a knife or sword an such and he said yes i could have them. I looked it up when i got home and i think he lied because while on probation you cant have any of them. I let my brother hold on to them and two days later he showed up with two other officers. He was suprised when he couldn’t find them. Me and the wife laughed after they left. He wanted to violate me but couldn’t. It’s still funny, if i didn’t look it up an trusted him, off to jail because its my responsibility to know all the rules an he would’ve denied saying that.