The emotional impact on and coping strategies employed by police teams investigating internet child exploitation
Abstract
Work on Internet child exploitation (ICE) teams require individuals to perform a number of investiga- tive tasks, including viewing graphic images and videos of young children being sexually assaulted and tortured, to identify victims and locate perpetrators. Individuals involved in this work may be at higher risk for experiencing secondary traumatic stress because of the graphic images and sounds to which they are exposed. The impact of ICE investigations and what helps and hinders coping with the work was explored using the Critical Incident Technique with 14 members of a Royal Canadian Mounted Police integrated ICE team. Results suggest that there are a number of organizational and personal strategies that can assist those who work in this field to cope more effectively.
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Volunteer and commercial content moderators have distinct working conditions.
“It is likely that volunteer and commercial CMs have distinct working conditions”
From The psychological impacts of content moderation on content moderators: A qualitative study (2023) · cites this paper as Burns et al., 2008
The distinct working conditions of volunteer and commercial content moderators likely lead to them experiencing the role differently, with different expectations, training, and levels of support.
“likely leading to experiencing the role differently, in that it may be associated with different expectations, training, and levels of support (Burns et al., 2008).”
From The psychological impacts of content moderation on content moderators: A qualitative study (2023) · cites this paper as Burns et al., 2008
This study was unable to fully capture the full range of different work environments content moderators will be exposed to, in terms of support provided and working conditions, which are likely to impact content moderator resilience.
“Thus, this study was unable to fully capture the full range of different work environments CMs will be exposed to, not only in terms of support provided but also working conditions, which are likely impact CM resilience (Burns et al., 2008; Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2014).”
From The psychological impacts of content moderation on content moderators: A qualitative study (2023) · cites this paper as Burns et al., 2008
In professions such as first responders and police, these risks are more widely recognised, contributing to support being implemented and more understanding from managers and the community.
“In these professions, these risks are more widely recognised, for the most part, contributing to support being implemented and facilitating more understanding from managers and the community (Burns et al., 2008; Krause, 2009).”
From The psychological impacts of content moderation on content moderators: A qualitative study (2023) · cites this paper as Burns et al., 2008
Cites
Occupational stress among senior police officers.
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Perez, L. M., Jones, J., Englert, D. R., & Sachau, D. (2010) · Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology · doi:10.1007/s11896-010-9066-7 · Cited by 226 · see citing works
The Psychological Well-Being of Content Moderators
Steiger, M., Bharucha, T. J., Venkatagiri, S., Riedl, M. J., & Lease, M. (2021) · Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/3411764.3445092 · Cited by 168 · see citing works
Bourke, M. L., & Craun, S. W. (2014) · Sexual Abuse · doi:10.1177/1079063213509411 · Cited by 97 · see citing works
The psychological impacts of content moderation on content moderators: A qualitative study
Spence, R., Bifulco, A., Bradbury, P., Martellozzo, E., & DeMarco, J. (2023) · Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace · doi:10.5817/cp2023-4-8 · Cited by 48 · see citing works
“Thus, this study was unable to fully capture the full range of different work environments CMs will be exposed to, not only in terms of support provided but also working conditions, which are likely impact CM resilience (Burns et al., 2008; Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2014).”
BackgroundInfluentialContent Moderator Mental Health, Secondary Trauma, and Well-being: A Cross-Sectional Study
Spence, R., Bifulco, A., Bradbury, P., Martellozzo, E., & DeMarco, J. (2024) · Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking · doi:10.1089/cyber.2023.0298 · Cited by 22 · see citing works
Conway, P., Redmond, T., Lundrigan, S., Davy, D., Bailey, S., & Lee, P. (2024) · Depression and Anxiety · doi:10.1155/da/1854312 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
Measuring the Mental Health of Content Reviewers, a Systematic Review
Gonzalez, A., & Matias, J. N. (2025) · arXiv · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2502.00244 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
“…and longitudinal studies to measure potential effects and their long-term consequences, quantify potential impacts, and explore possible factors that increase content reviewer resilience [3, 30, 168]—issues that have been explored qualitatively in CSCW and HCI scholarship, e.g., [39, 45, 61, 64].”
- Authors
- Burns, C. M., Morley, J., Bradshaw, R., & Domene, J.
- Affiliations
- Trinity Western University (CA)
- Royal Canadian Mounted Police (CA)
- ORCID
- Domene, José
- Venue
- Traumatology
- Published
- 2008-06
- Volume
- 14
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 20-31
- ISSN
- 1085-9373 (ISSN-L)
- 1534-7656
- OpenAlex
- W2115865636
- Cited by
- 162
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 19 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 26 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 3
- FWCI
- 2.23
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Traumatology An International Journal (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Stress and Burnout Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child Abuse and Trauma
- Keywords
- secondary traumatic stress, police investigators, coping strategies, critical incident technique, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, occupational injuries, victim identification, suspect identification
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