COLORADO SPRINGS – Children–and middle school-aged boys in particular–are becoming addicted to sex on the Internet in numbers that would startle most clinicians and parents, Ann Freeman said at a symposium on addictive disorders sponsored by Psychotherapy Associates.
She commonly encounters inadequate-feeling, socially isolated youngsters going through the tumult of puberty whose first sexual experience of arousal and orgasm occurred on the Internet and who are addicted to masturbating in the family computer room to sexually explicit Internet sites three or four times daily.
“This issue of young middle school-aged kids being aroused to the Internet is something that I think people are really not very aware of. … Almost every kid I see in my private practice, including those who are supposedly not seeing me for any kind of sexual issue, has some issues around arousal to the Internet,” said Ms. Freeman, a program director for the Colorado Division of Youth Corrections who also maintains a private psychotherapy practice in Colorado Springs.
“We have kids that you don't want in the same room with a computer because it's so arousing. A lot of people who work with kids really don't understand the level of arousal and addiction and habituation. Some of these kids, unfortunately, while still feeling inadequate, will transfer that and will molest or sexually touch a younger child. This is not an unusual progression,” she said at the symposium, cosponsored by the Penrose-St. Francis Healthcare System.
Ms. Freeman encouraged every therapist who works with children or practices family therapy–and certainly everyone who does formal evaluations of juvenile sex offenders–to ask the youths a series of open-ended questions about their computer use, eventually zeroing in on how often they frequent sexually explicit Web sites and chat rooms. “You'll be amazed at where this takes you,” she promised.
She has found cognitive-behavioral therapy to be effective in redirecting youths addicted to cybersex, although often she first has to treat accompanying depression.
Her warning about the increasing emotional havoc among youths who are becoming addicted to pornographic Internet sites was supported by Paul M. Isenstadt, a social worker who is director of program and residential services at ComCor Inc., a Colorado Springs-based nonprofit community corrections program.
“Access to the Internet is probably the greatest disinhibitor for adolescents. We used to think the use of drugs and alcohol was what broke down defenses. We still see that. But I believe based on my experience that the greatest disinhibitor now is the Internet. The Internet provides the three A's of affordability, accessibility, and anonymity,” he said.