BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Julia von Weiler studied Psychology at New York University and the Free University, Berlin. During her studies in New York she interned at the 'Children’s Safety Project' in New York City, where she provided support for abused children. From 1992 to 1994 she worked as a pedagogue in the ‘Mädchenvilla’, the first residential project of its kind in Germany for abused girls aged 4 to 14, which was situated in Beckum. She was a board member of its supporting association from 1993 to 2000.

From 1999 to 2002, Julia von Weiler provided counselling for sexually abused girls and boys as well as their guardians in a counselling drop-in centre in Cologne. Until 2007 she then headed the psychology department at the ‘Kind in Düsseldorf’ gGmbH, a diagnostic and therapeutic institution for providing in-patient treatment for abused children aged 3 to 12 (www.kid-facheinrichtung.de). 

Since 2003 she has been director of ‘Innocence in Danger e.V.’, the German section of an international network working against sexual abuse, which is particularly committed to preventing the spread of child abusive images through the internet (www.innocenceindanger.de).

Online distribution of abusive images has risen dramatically over the past years. Many questions arise: Who are the victims we see in these images? How do we find them and how do we treat them once they are identified? From October 2004 until September 2007 Innocence in Danger questioned all specialized institutions nationwide dealing with sexual abused children with in order to gain a first status quo concerning the issue of working with victims of child-pornographic exploitation and also touched online distribution of these abusive images.

Findings regard 245 cases of child pornographic exploitation (197 girls, 48 boys) and 280 suspected cases of child pornographic exploitation. Professionals reported that cases of CPE are of a higher complexity, more demanding for professionals and raise many questions as to how to deal with them on a professional level – i.e. how to deal with the issue of permanence once abusive images have been distributed online, coping strategies, etc.

During these studies Innocence in Danger was confronted with cases in which adolescents filmed each other having sex and distributed these films via Bluetooth to other cell phones or the Internet. In these cases professionals are also ill at ease as how to handle such cases. Therefore in 2008 Innocence in Danger began a model prevention scheme regarding the distribution of sexually explicit images via Internet, cell phone, iPod & Co. with adolescents age 12 to 15.

This workshop will discuss the care and treatment of CPE victims as well as give first insight into the ongoing prevention model scheme working with adolescents