BREAKING THE SILENCE IN A GROUP ON-LINE FACING CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE

ABSTRACT

This article presents an excerpt of the data collected in interviews during online ethnographic research about the disclosure of the experiences of victims of sexual violence in a Facebook group entitled ‘Fight against child sexual abuse’. This study considered the research’s understanding that the reports function as a possible way of breaking the pact of silence and become the basis for the beginning of the psychic trauma elaboration. Interactions in the group were recorded in a field diary during the four-month follow-up period. The data were further analyzed in ten semi-structured interviews with participants contacted through an invitation posted in the group. The interviews were conducted by video call and asked about the meaning they produce when using the group, reflecting on the possibility of overcoming the condition of victims. The use of the platform emerges as a possibility to do something that helps other victims, either by sharing stories or providing information that helps break the abusive cycle. It is observed that each victim deals uniquely with the traumatic event, facing the psychic impacts of the aggression and the moment of disclosure permeated by the family dynamics and power asymmetry. Thus, the need for qualified listening is evident, which enables a subjective reconstruction facilitated by elaborating on what happened.

Keywords:
Ethnography online; Facebook; child sexual abuse

RESUMO

O presente artigo apresenta um recorte dos dados coletados em entrevistas durante pesquisa etnográfica on-line acerca da exposição das vivências de vítimas de violência sexual em grupo no Facebook intitulado ‘Luta contra o abuso sexual infantil’. Entendemos que os relatos funcionam como uma possibilidade de quebra do pacto de silêncio e se constituem como o início da elaboração do trauma psíquico. As interações no grupo foram registradas em diário de campo durante o período de quatro meses de acompanhamento e os dados aprofundados em dez entrevistas semiestruturadas com participantes contactadas por meio de convite postado no grupo. As entrevistas aconteceram por vídeochamada e perguntavam sobre o sentido que elas produzem ao utilizar o grupo, refletindo sobre a possibilidade de ultrapassar a condição de vítimas. Verifica-se que o uso da plataforma surge como uma possibilidade de fazer algo que ajude outras vítimas, seja por meio do compartilhamento de histórias ou do fornecimento de informações que auxiliem a romper com o ciclo abusivo. Observa-se que cada vítima lida de forma única com o evento traumático, enfrentando impactos psíquicos da agressão e do momento de revelação permeado pela dinâmica familiar e pela assimetria de poder. Desta forma, fica evidenciada a necessidade de uma escuta qualificada que viabilize a reconstrução subjetiva facilitada por um processo de elaboração do ocorrido.

Palavras-chave:
Etnografia on-line; Facebook; abuso sexual infantil

RESUMEN.

El presente artículo presenta una compilación de los datos recolectados durante la investigación etnográfica online realizada acerca de la exposición de las vivencias de víctimas de violencia sexual en el grupo de Facebook intitulado ‘Lucha contra el abuso infantil’. Entendemos que los relatos funcionan como una posibilidad de romper el pacto de silencio y constituyen el inicio de la elaboración del trauma psíquico. Las interacciones en el grupo se registraron en un diario de campo durante el período de cuatro meses de seguimiento y los datos se profundizaron en diez entrevistas semiestructuradas con participantes contactados a través de una invitación publicada en el grupo. Las entrevistas se realizaron mediante videollamada y se preguntaron sobre el sentido que producen al utilizar el grupo, reflexionando sobre la posibilidad de superar la condición de víctimas. Verifícase que el uso de la plataforma surge como una posibilidad para hacer algo que ayude a otras víctimas, sea por medio de compartir historias o a través del suministro de informaciones que auxilien a romper el ciclo abusivo. Obsérvase que cada víctima lida de forma única con el evento traumático, enfrentando impactos psíquicos de agresión y del momento de revelación permeado por la dinámica familiar y por la asimetría de poder. De esta manera, se evidencia la necesidad de una escucha cualificada que posibilite una reconstrucción subjetiva facilitada por un proceso de elaboración de lo ocurrido.

Palabras clave:
Etnografía on-line; Facebook; abuso sexual infantil

Introduction: Understanding child sexual abuse

The understanding of child sexual abuse goes through different spheres that must consider the relevance of effective listening in trying to build viable interventions that respect the needs of those involved in a situation of violence. Manifested in different ways, sexual abuse ranges from acts in which there is no physical contact (harassment, ‘voyeurism’, exhibitionism) to others with contact but without penetration (oral sex, interfemoral intercourse) or even those with penetration (digital, with objects, genital or anal) (Habigzang, Azevedo, Koller, & Machado, 2006).

According to Florentino (2015, p. 139), such violence is characterized by “[…] any act of sexual interest by one or more adults concerning a child or adolescent, which may occur both within the family - between people who have affective ties, as well in the extra-familial sphere - between people who are not related”. In the intra-family context, this is configured as an incestuous sexual act that, commonly, “[…] lasts a long period and can be practiced with the knowledge and coverage of other family members” (Florentino, 2015, p. 139).

In principle, it is from it that the subjects will have access to education and the internalization of values. As participants in this dynamic process, children are inserted in a context where social roles are played, thus building an identity. Therefore, the experience of incest characterizes the disorganization of family functions, significantly impacting the psychic dynamics and the people’s lives in this context (Faleiros, 2005).

Besides the numerous negative consequences for victims’ cognitive, affective, psychological and social development, sexual violence against children and adolescents has been a severe public health problem. Data informed in 2018 by the Ministério dos Direitos Humanos (Ministry of Human Rights), the government agency responsible for actions to combat child sexual abuse and other types of violence, state that in 2017 alone, more than 20,000 complaints were registered on Dial 100, a public utility service that receives claims about such violations.

Data from the Anuário de Segurança Pública (Public Security Yearbook) released in 2020 report that in 2019, 66,123 rapes were recorded in the country, 85.7% against women. Most victims (57.9%) are female up to 19 years old, and the perpetrators (80%) are close people, family members or people who live in the same environment. There were 25,984 cases of rape against children and adolescents (Forum Brasileiro de Segurança Pública, 2020).

Given this scenario, there is a need to talk about the issue of child abuse, revealing the silence that accompanies it in different generations. In the meantime, what vias does this speech find to echo currently?

Following the social transformations of contemporaneity, favored by the advent of information and communication technologies, this article is composed of the analysis of the content shared in an online community on Facebook and by reports of volunteers, here named by themselves in the referred community as survivors and, therefore, we maintain the expression throughout the text when referring to the group or participants. Although the research consisted of immersion in the community, we analyze the speeches in the interviews to investigate whether the reports of the experience suffered in childhood and/or adolescence, when shared in a group on the social network, can function as a break of the pact of silence, enabling the psychic trauma elaboration. It is assumed that the advent of these technologies has brought with it a new format of social interaction.

Virtual social networks emerge at this juncture, illustrating communicative facets of contemporary society, giving rise to a possibility on these platforms to make anguish visible and build an identity of belonging capable of contributing to a subjective reconstruction (Silva, 2018).

Method: Online ethnography

The social and cultural impacts of new technologies establish new paradigms. It is up to Psychology to follow up and problematize these, seeking to reflect on the cultural, social and psychological changes caused by the intensified use of information and communication technologies.

Thus, the proposal of this article is configured in an online ethnographic study - understood here as a qualitative analysis of a given virtual community (Ferraz & Alvez, 2017). The method presents a profound transformation in anthropology, which considers the characteristics of virtual environments and communication mediated by information and communication technologies.

According to Ferraz and Alvez (2017, p. 22), the ethnographic process must encompass “[…] the descriptions, reflections and stories of the participants within an objective perspective. Focusing in this way on the places where the analytical categories converge, offering reflection and self-reflection in the knowledge construction regarding the practice and the object studied”

Hine (2015) also states that the procedures of online ethnography must emphasize the combination of observation and participation, in addition to a certain period of engagement in the studied community, implying an immersion in this environment.

Given this context, the exercise of an online ethnographic practice follows the basic premise proposed by traditional ethnography. So, it is up to the ethnographer to densely describe social practices, aiming to explain how social experiences and dynamics constitute webs of meaning (Geertz, 1989).

It is fundamental in this proposal to “[…] investigate how people appropriate technologies and give meaning to their use” (Mitsuishi, 2007 apud Polivanov, 2013, p. 62). The description of online interactions recorded in a field diary guided the discussions presented here and prompted the proposed problem: how can reporting experiences in the group help in elaborating sexual violence? In this article, we opted for a cut of the data collected by selecting the analysis of the interviews with the online community participants.

Reflecting on the social transformations inaugurated by the contemporary and on the possibilities that technologies and the uses of the internet create, we can observe the cry of some survivors of child sexual abuse in the creation of groups on the Facebook social network.

When thinking about the research proposal in question, we sought the moderators’ authorization to follow pages and groups related to the issue, making an invitation, published on the groups’ pages, with the prior consent of the administrators to interview ten female users of the platform who were willing to talk about their perceptions on using the device in their trajectory of facing the experience of violence suffered. The research was submitted to and approved by the Comitê de Ética em Pesquisa da Universidade Católica de Petrópolis (Research Ethics Committee of the Catholic University of Petrópolis) under protocol number 2,743,488. The work was accepted by the group ‘Luta contra o abuso sexual infantil’ (Fight against child sexual abuse), created on May 26, 2012. Emphasizing the publication of information related to the protection of children and adolescents, the group highlights in its presentation that “[…] not everyone is lucky enough to live in a healthy universe and that statistics do not reveal the reality of the facts about sexual violence” (Grupo Luta Contra o Abuso Sexual Infantil, 2018).

Having a public character, anyone can find it by searching the social network and looking for the words ‘luta e abuso sexual infantil’ (fight and child sexual abuse).

However, on June 14, 2018, the publications and views were restricted to members due to requests from participants who pointed out the subject’s seriousness and the victims’ exposures. Thus, the publications made during the field diary recording - developed between June and September 2018, with observations twice a week - were centered on the members’ posts added by the eleven responsible moderators.

Consisting of 5,973 members until the end of the data collection in September 2018, the publication of commercial, political and racist messages and any others unrelated to the topic discussed is prohibited. In large part, the content is summarized in reports on pedophilia and child sexual abuse cases, denouncing the impunity of some perpetrators and the failures of a fragile and unprepared Judiciary System to face this configuration of crime.

The creator of the page, a writer and motivational speaker, suffered from his stepfather’s abuse at the age of 6 and, in his publications, emphasizes the importance of mutual support and enlightenment to face sexual violence.

Many people, both men and women, share their stories of survival from sexual violation, getting support and encouragement from other members by answering messages and providing telephone contact in emergency help requests. The testimonies talk about the difficulties of finding help and information, especially when the victim is still a minor. The words of encouragement denote tones of understanding and empathy, such as “Go ahead, angel, don’t be discouraged,” “Look for the Guardianship Council in your city. If you have difficulties, ask the school to activate it or tell a teacher you trust or another adult. We are here to help you”. The comments keep unfolding, and many people share their stories as victims, establishing a sense of belonging with the group.

The interviews with the survivors were conducted between August 19 and September 8, 2018, by video calls via Facebook Messenger (a program developed by Facebook Inc., created in 2011, aiming at quick conversations between users connected to the social network) and by Whatsapp (multiplatform application for instant messaging and voice calls for smartphones), besides the exchange of written and audio messages - highlighting that, due to the statistical data obtained, the informants were women of legal age who accepted the invitation.

The semi-structured interview script was organized with fourteen questions. The first three are to collect personal data: age, schooling and city where the participant lived; and the others to understand how entry and participation in the online group occurred: the age when the sexual violence happened, who was the perpetrator, how did she find the group, what motivated her to participate in the group, what inspired her telling about what happened, what changed when she reported it, whether there were repercussions of the report and how they occurred, whether she resorted to psychotherapy and for what reasons, appealed to the Judiciary and for what reasons, and what impacts she felt after these searches in case they had been carried out. It is essential to highlight that the script was a guideline for conducting the interviews, which were in a conversational format, giving space to the participants to guide their reports.

The interviews ended with the offer of listening for the participant to add what she considered relevant about her life story as a survivor of sexual violence and her relationship with the online group. In all of them, further contact with the researchers and a referral for psychological follow-up in case of discomfort after the interviews were offered.

Their stories will be presented throughout the text to describe their experiences on the issue. It is noteworthy that, to protect the identity of the survivors, their proper names were changed by the names of rare flowers that survive in sterile conditions, following the suggestion of one of the interviewees who stated how much this gesture reminded her that she was strong and what she had faced to survive.

Sharing stories on the social network: disclosure as a search for acceptance and belonging

Based on Saffioti’s (1989) considerations, one may affirm that the collapse of patriarchy would be able to curb the abuses committed against categories seen as subordinate - women, blacks, the poor and children - to the extent that it would promote social equality. This author argues that the nature of such abuses is social and not individual. In this sense, she presents the idea that the family has an immaculate character and that the assumption of violence in its bosom would jeopardize this conception since “[…] given the sacredness of the family institution, society stigmatizes and marginalizes those who point out its ills” (Saffioti, 1989, p. 13).

Thereby, adults tend to hide conflicts within the family sphere since silence allows the family structure not to fall apart, contributing to the denial of the reality imposed by the established secret to protect the family from the social environment’s judgment and its disharmony. One of the survivors, identified here as Orquídea, punctuated in an interview with the researchers: “My mother wanted to cover it up. She didn’t want to talk more on this matter”. Another describes the reaction the family had when the partner told about the uncle/godfather’s crime,

Though he (the partner) had told them, it didn’t help me at all. I was labeled a liar, a home wrecker, and they said it was my invention, that I was just like my mother, a slut. This affected me a lot. I gained weight and went to 440.92 pounds. I never had any pleasure in any relationship, and to this day, I can’t stand being touched (Silene, in an interview with the researchers).

Family secrecy is further reinforced by the subject’s perception of the perpetrator, with whom, many times, there is a relationship of affection and trust. When establishing a pact of silence with the adult about the suffered transgression, the child has the word imprisoned to satisfy the latter’s interests.

My biological father raped me from the age of six to fourteen. I only told them about this after my parent’s divorce. And I don’t know his reasons. It isn’t very easy. It’s my father [...] I went after knowledge to try to understand his mind [...] Everything indicates that he has also suffered abuse. My anger with him ended. I forgave him, you know [...] I’m crazy about his attitude and why he did this to me. In my head, it was normal what he did to me. When I was growing up, nine, ten years old, my mother started talking to us, talking about what was going to happen because we were girls. I saw that something was wrong and I went to speak to him [...] then the threats started. He said he would start by killing my mother, my sisters and finally killing me. As he already beat my mother a lot, it was easy for him to silence me in this sense. For him to do anything madness was for now (Kadupul, interviewed by the researchers).

The implications of aggression characterize the possibility of inscribing it as a traumatic event that will gain different dimensions depending on how each victim constituted it. Although it is necessary to consider the relativity of trauma before the tolerance of each subject, associated with his history and psychic organization, incestuous sexual abuse intensifies the victim’s difficulty in elaborating it.

Unfortunately, no doctor or psychologist has been able to make me have sexual desire or pleasure, but despite everything, I am happy. I have a daughter, and I believe in everything she says. I hope this doesn’t happen to anyone’s son because I even tried to commit suicide when I was twelve, but God didn’t let anything happen to me (Silene, in an interview with the researchers).

Lasting for the rest of the victim’s life, with greater or lesser intensity, the dimensions of the trauma can be elucidated in feelings such as “[…] anger, disgust, suffering, depression and behaviors marked by carelessness, avoidance, aggression, anxiety, fear, sexual initiatives before other children” (Faleiros, 2005, p. 71).

Indexes released in 2017b from the Ministério da Saúde (Ministry of Health) reveal that sexual abuse and depression related to the history of having been victimized determine vital risk factors for suicidal ideation and its realization among many women. The following reports highlight the problem, “I have disorders, I self-mutilate myself every day several times, for all these years without stopping. I tried to commit suicide when I did not receive support from my mother” (Orquídea, interviewed by the researchers).

That’s it. As a result, I was an extremely unhappy child, and I still suffer impacts to this day. Obesity has accompanied me since I was very young. I have no memories of good things and always remember only the bad ones. I don’t have many friends. I don’t trust anyone. I don’t have much affective intimacy with my mother. Even though I don’t blame her, I prefer not to think about where her mistake was and where mine was too for all this to happen, everything I allowed for so many and so many years. I learned to be alone, always alone, to bear everything alone and silent (Hydnora, in an interview with the researchers).

I have terrible nightmares, hardly sleep, take a lot of medicine, and try to kill myself a few times. I keep trying to help people to see I feel better (Rosa Arco-Íris, interviewed by the researchers).

Azevedo and Guerra (1989) understand that the victimization process is carried out by children in a ‘state of siege’,

The victim has not only restricted his activity of action and reaction but also her word is revoked and starts to live under the sign of fear: fear of coercion, fear of disclosure herself... As victimization is not an isolated phenomenon but a process that sometimes lasts for years, the victim begins to experience a situation typical of a state of siege, in which her freedom - as personal autonomy - is entirely curtailed and from which she will only be rescued, as a rule, by recovering the power of her word, that is, making public the private violence of which she was a victim (Azevedo & Guerra, 1989, p. 35).

França (2017) emphasizes that only when the trauma is put into words, there is the possibility of a subjective reconstruction. The disclosure process, in this way, is carried out in a complex way. Still, when reached, it allows the beginning of the representation of the psychic trauma and the rupture of the maintained violent relationship.

This process can happen intentionally when victims decide when and to whom to report, or even accidentally when some triggering context suggests the possibility of some abusive interaction (Paine & Hansen 2002 apud Baía, Veloso, Magalhães, & Dell’Aglio, 2013).

I started psychotherapy a year or so ago. I started because I had anxiety attacks, even crying in the classroom. I felt obliged to tell a teacher because I tried to commit suicide, and a colleague encouraged me to tell (Jade, in an interview with the researchers).

In support groups, the credibility of the victim’s word makes a difference in breaking the silence. In the judicial sphere, when the notification of suspected abuse occurs, the absence of material evidence makes the process difficult and psychological reports are not always considered. The lack of recognition of the victim’s attempts to communicate causes a second shock, the denial, as “[…] each shock causes a split, a division in the Self that breaks the previous feeling of an established identity” (Dal Molin, 2017, p. 79).

Staller and Nelson-Gardell (2005 apud Santos & Dell’Aglio 2010) certify the idea that the difficulty in revealing the sexual aggression suffered reflects the dynamic family system. To this aspect are added the fears of not having the report accepted, of being discredited, rejected and blamed. For the authors, the disclosure has three different stages composed of the expectations before the moment of revealing, including the feelings and sensations of experienced pleasure; the disclosure itself, facilitated by the confidant’s reactions to what he hears; and the consequences that will follow the story. For Faleiros (2005), overcoming becomes possible before accepting the victim’s word, who gains possibilities of confrontation by undoing the secret.

The reality experienced by the interviewed survivors takes a different place from the ideal above. Many reports highlighted the lack of credibility in the victim’s words, proving the non-recognition of the family as another form of violence,

When I told my parents, my mother didn’t show any concerns, just said that we lived in the country and that he might be playing with me. My father locked himself with him (the abuser) in the bedroom, and after that conversation, he never sexually abused me again. However, the physical violence remained for years. My adolescence was a horrible period, I sometimes had suicidal thoughts, but I decided to rise like a phoenix and give myself a chance. I decided to rebuild my life through studies, which, since childhood, were my subterfuge (Youtan, interviewed by the researchers).

When I was eighteen, I was going to get married, and I wanted to tell the whole truth to my mother, who, being very religious, didn’t believe what I was saying. I insisted that I was telling the truth, and she then told me that if it had happened, I should have provoked it. So, I decided to look for people who had gone through the situation and could listen to me without calling me a liar (Lotus, in an interview with the researchers).

There’s something important I wanted to tell you that I noticed. It’s just that people share that it’s challenging to live, right, stay in the house after they tell the family what happened to them. I think people don’t count when they’re younger like me. I told them when I was only eighteen when my parents were separating. Then I had more courage to talk about it, and even then, it wasn’t easy because everyone thought it was a story I made up. After all, my parents were getting divorced. I had to leave the house because my mother got a bit upset. I lived with my paternal grandmother and my mother. So, my paternal grandmother started to mistreat me, and it became impossible to live with her. It was me or was it her at home... (Videira, interviewed by the researchers).

For Dal Molin (2017, p. 82), there is isolation, a victim’s perception that there is no one she can count on, an aspect that works as “[…] a cornerstone of trauma, and interrupts attempts at communication and later the elaboration of meaning”.

The next day I told my mother and stepfather, and no one believed me. That´s the reason I said I shouldn’t have spoken. It’s just that my family is small; we are few, we are apart because of that [...] They totally distanced themselves from our family. These are people I loved, and I miss them so much. I’m sorry for what happened and for having spoken. I think I shouldn’t have said. At first, no one believed. My mother started to believe in me last year because of all the trauma I brought into the marriage. And while the trauma exists, sex life does not go forward, nor does the marriage (Rafflesia, in an interview with the researchers).

Dealing with the difficulty of listening to reality and making it public, the survivors’ resource was searching for a group in the virtual environment so that, even without knowing their identities, they could share similar experiences and stories, which would facilitate the overcoming of their trauma. When asked how they found the group and what reasons led them to participate in it and tell what happened, some interviewees answered,

I found it searching because I wanted to know more people simultaneously and so on, more out of curiosity, and I found it fantastic. I wanted to know more. It motivated me to talk more because once I said it, I felt relief. I wanted to tell the whole world. A feeling of freedom, you know. It was exciting, so I told it (Jade, interviewed by the researchers).

Other survivors found in writing a resource to expose their dramas,

I made a blog that I am a programmer about fighting pedophilia. So, I was looking for pages to help me with articles, and then I discovered this group. It was to look for the materials, share my story, and show it to whom needs help and information. That is the most important thing (Videira, in an interview with the researchers).

Snooping around on Facebook at the beginning of the year, it’s a subject that catches my attention. I even published a book recently about my experience. I started looking for the issue at the beginning of the year and discovered the pages and groups (Kadupul, interviewed by the researchers).

The group helps to make sense of what happened through fights and confrontation. Some reports indicated that the exchange of experiences and feelings initiates an elaboration, that is, a production of meaning occurs,

I read a story, I don’t remember exactly how it was, but I always like to read about it because we often don’t realize how bad we are suffering. Today I share my story to serve as a warning to many mothers. Sometimes, the daughter behaves strangely, but we close our eyes to it (Hydnora, in an interview with the researchers).

I wanted to know about stories of overcoming, of new beginnings, to strengthen me on this journey and help other people with my story (Youtan, interviewed by the researchers).

The voice of child sexual abuse survivors: between relief and fights

Since violence has repercussions throughout the victim’s life, it is necessary to create a perspective that sees in the subject possibilities of rebuilding himself, breaking with the stigma of a victim. Overcoming such a condition faces health impacts. Sleep disorders, depression and fear stand out, often configured by the difficulty of relating to people of the same sex as the abuser, always maintaining a present distrust. The following report illustrates some consequences,

I know I need to talk to the psychologist because demons show up now and then. When they sometimes appear, asking a friend, or a neighbor, they say, forget about it, this is in the past, and it’s no use talking. Well, hold on. I realize it´s not about that… Even today, if I see a child sitting on a father’s lap, I can’t find that beautiful, I can’t find that attractive, I can’t see a child alone with a father and trust him. Even if it is in the past, it affects the future, and in therapy, I can reason, think, and train ways to deal with it (Lotus, in an interview with the researchers).

For subjective reconstruction to be possible, the victim must be able to glimpse herself beyond the condition inflicted on her. Trauma needs to be put into words. However, what is evident in the ethnography conducted is the need for an ‘attentive and continent listening’, as identified by França (2017). This author emphasizes that it is necessary to work together in these cases, that is, an analytical process that, through the reception of the word by the psychotherapist, may lead the subject to an organization of new ways of signifying the trauma.

The prospect of a qualification that prepares the future psychologist to work in contexts of sexual abuse requires training that integrates theory and practice. The Ministry of Education (Ministério da Educação, 2017a) proposes in the Diretrizes Curriculares Nacionais (National Curricular Guidelines) for Psychology courses a training that enables students to perform in different contexts, using their technical domain to contribute with scientific knowledge, ensuring an ethical and citizen posture and a more comprehensive and integrated view of psychological and social processes.

The survivors’ reports elucidated the need to reflect on the difficulties they identified when seeking psychological help. When asked if they had resorted to psychotherapy, some only mentioned, “Yes, but I didn’t get the help I expected. I gave up.”; “I did it for a year, but it didn’t work out much because I wasn’t willing” (Silene and Kadupul, interviewed by the researchers).

As students and professionals in the field, it is essential to reflect on why psychotherapy failed to help some survivors. Costa and Lima (2008) reinforce that by knowing the issues of society and violence, psychologists broaden their view and can seek to break with naturalizations, being sensitive to social problems and other people’s suffering.

There is a subjective dimension in each subject which should be the field of psychology intervention, which requires critical and reflexive contact committed to social needs.

Faiman (2004, p. 16) discusses professional performance based on the psychoanalytical framework, stating that maintaining a “[…] non-directive posture, with available and trained listening to capture the movements of an emotional nature that occur in the session, to favor the process of psychic contents elaboration that, hence, can be perceived and verbalized […]”, the psychologist will be able to play his committed role with the promotion of psychological integration and development.

Trained listening is understood to be one that seeks a professional qualification based on theoretical studies, analytical monitoring and clinical care under supervision. Therefore, it must have been understood that this process is only viable by establishing a bond that presupposes a professional positioning free from moral judgments. In specific reports, it is possible to perceive the realization of this conception,

[...] the scar persists in my heart, and I think my story encourages people to tell and seek psychological help because we always think it’s our fault and it´s never our fault. I thought I was guilty because I had a girl’s body since I was nine, but today I see that they are monsters [...] (Silene, in an interview with the researchers).

I had several health problems. I had a urinary tract infection, my doctor said it was psychological, I had an ulcer, and a problem with my kidney, so my doctor said I had to seek psychological treatment. I had issues with menstruation, and then I discovered that it was all psychological, and the psychologist helped a lot (Videira, interviewed by the researchers).

I developed OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder). Therapy helped me because I was able to identify the triggers. In addition to reading a lot, I developed a talent for writing because it allows me to put it out there. But therapy helps me a lot (Jade, in an interview with the researchers).

It is worth noting that, among the ten interviewees, only three made the complaint and the judicial notification. It is to be highlighted that one of them suffered a collective rape in the community where she lived, in addition to the history of incest. Her report reveals a weakness commonly pointed out by the victims, the lack of preparation of the legal bodies responsible for dealing with this public, “As I was not welcomed at the police station, people thought I provoked and deserved it because I went out to take drugs and I also ended up believing this and did not carry it through” (Rosa Arco-Íris, interviewed by the researchers).

It is emphasized that when the victim seeks help in this sphere, she deals with the disclosure process and the indelible marks of violence. For this reason, it seems correct to state that surviving, persisting despite what has occurred, constitutes a constant subjective reconstruction that occurs amidst many difficulties. In the words of one of the rare flowers interviewed,

I don’t feel like a survivor. What’s left of me is just the shell. I try a lot to reinvent myself, but some days it isn’t easy, and now concerning my daughter, I don’t know how to act or what to do. I need to seek psychological treatment again (Rosa Arco-Íris, in an interview with the researchers).

Final considerations

The online ethnography of child sexual abuse conducted in this research enabled us to understand the complex issue. In its development, it is noteworthy that the entry into the Facebook group occurred without any previous direction to observe whether the report made in this space could facilitate the elaboration of the psychic trauma. This investigates the possibilities of facing child sexual abuse in an online group. The results suggest therapeutic effects in these interactions, especially in breaking the pact of silence.

The group helps by giving credibility and acceptance to the survivors’ reports. Through words of encouragement, they create a support network and disseminate information on where to seek help for formal complaints. In this sense, the device helped some people to break the family secrecy, sometimes kept for years and generations, permeated by fear, guilt and shame of disharmonizing the ideal family.

The interviewed survivors engaged in the group aiming to help other survivors, demonstrating that the platform can be conceived as an essential step in the process of subjective reconstruction, allowing them to perceive themselves beyond what this condition imposes. Therefore, identified as survivors, there is a search to give meaning to what they suffered through fights, confrontation and support for others. However, it is frequent that, when reading other case reports, memories are reactivated, and many difficulties reappear in the form of symptoms such as insomnia, depression, fear and guilt.

We could say that psychological care is essential, but the participants recognize it is ineffective. Despite the current investment in the subject, neither the Judiciary nor psychology can listen to what these women demand and outline intervention strategies perceived as helping.

By stating that the psychological care received did not help them, they incite reflections on psychological practices in situations of sexual violence that should be developed in future studies. Possibilities of performing in this field, with interventions that need a welcoming listening, devoid of moral judgments, and that contemplate the family dynamics and the asymmetry of power relations established in its nucleus must be glimpsed, as well as the idealizations built about the social roles that involve the family as a social institution.

Regarding the Judiciary, the results point to the survivors’ fear of denouncing their perpetrators and not having credibility. Only three of the ten interviewees made a formal complaint. They report the unpreparedness of professionals in the service and the demand for material evidence. The lack of effectiveness pointed out by the survivors who sought this resource reveals an inclination of the institution’s professionals to blame the victim.

The results cannot be taken as conclusive due to the study’s limitations, which, in its exploratory nature, aims to expand knowledge about the phenomenon, and for having a small sample, characteristic of qualitative studies. Further analyses of online groups’ therapeutic effects and the questions mentioned above about institutional and professional practices developed for the care of child sexual abuse are needed.

Before the challenges the issue requires, overcoming the fear of approaching the subject with children is essential. The professional orientation based on theoretical frameworks can promote a sexual education capable of appropriately building a suitable scenario to dialogue about sexuality. It is necessary that professionals in the Psychology field truly incorporate such an issue, seeking to glimpse its various facets and considering the importance of interventions aimed at an interdisciplinary approach capable of looking at the problem from different angles and, therefore, in a more comprehensive way.

It is stressed that people reinvent themselves from the experiences they live through and the associations they establish. Thus, although the studies point to the use of social networks for daily life in a trivialized manner, these spaces are powerful actions capable of allowing positive developments.

What motivations lead to the exposure of such an experience in a social network? What psychic impacts are perceived and experienced by these victims? Is a subjective reconstruction possible, overcoming the traumatic event? Many questions should be asked, highlighting the urgency of producing further research to enable reflection on the issue.

This study aims to contribute to the conception that Psychology, as a science and profession linked to the ethical commitment to perform in defense of Human Rights, should address social taboos, such as sexual violence, in an attempt to contribute to its confrontation and prevention, considering that the issue is a public health problem and a violation of rights in Brazil.

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Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  07 Nov 2022
• Date of issue
  2023

History

• Received
  20 Dec 2019
• Accepted
  29 Mar 2021