ArticleJMIR mental health2021
Characteristics of the Users of Troubled Desire, a Web-Based Self-management App for Individuals With Sexual Interest in Children: Descriptive Analysis of Self-assessment Data.
Article in JMIR mental health, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT07424872 (Project VERANDA), which is not on this map. Cited by 11 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Project VERANDA: Requirement Analysis Survey
Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Web-Based Initiatives to Prevent Sexual Offense Perpetration: A Systematic Review.Current psychiatry reports · 2024Pooled it
- Identity under threat: internal conflict and stigma in undetected child sexual abuse material users.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Preventing Child Sexual Abuse in the 'Dunkelfeld': A Public Health Imperative Requiring Context-Appropriate Science-A Response to König (2025).Journal of prevention (2022) · 2025Article
- An Evaluation of the Evidence on Mobile Health Applications for Mental Health, Substance Use and Delinquency in Justice-Involved Adults and Youth: a Scoping Review.Research on child and adolescent psychopathology · 2025Article
- Exploring the Frontiers of Technology in Forensic Psychiatric Youth Care: Ethical Challenges.Research on child and adolescent psychopathology · 2025Review
- A brief unstructured literature review on the history of paraphilias.International journal of impotence research · 2025Review
- The Need for a Prevention Program for Child Sexual Abuse in Brazil: A Report of Shortfall Care to Pedophilia and its Critical Consequences.Journal of child & adolescent trauma · 2024Article
- Design and evaluation of child abuse web-based application for parent education & strengthen.BMC public health · 2024Article
- A conceptual framework for internet child abuse material offenders: risk-relevant therapy based on assessed risk factors.Psychiatry, psychology, and law : an interdisciplinary journal of the Australian and New Zealand Association of Psychiatry, Psychology and Law · 2024Article
- Stigma processes, psychological distress, and attitudes toward seeking treatment among pedohebephilic people.PloS one · 2024Article
- Pedophile, Child Lover, or Minor-Attracted Person? Attitudes Toward Labels Among People Who are Sexually Attracted to Children.Archives of sexual behavior · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundDespite the high prevalence of child sexual offenses and the increasing amounts of available child sexual abuse material, there is a global shortage of preventive interventions focusing on individuals at risk of sexual offending. The web-based app Troubled Desire aims to address this shortage by offering self-assessments and self-management training modules in different languages to individuals with sexual interests in prepubescent and early pubescent children (ie, those with pedophilic and hebephiliac sexual interest, respectively).
objectiveThe aim of this study was to describe the characteristics of the users of the Troubled Desire app.
methodsThe fully completed self-assessment data gathered within the first 30 months of this study from October 25, 2017 to April 25, 2020 were investigated. The main outcome measures were (1) sociodemographic information and (2) sexual interests and sexual behaviors of the users of Troubled Desire.
resultsThe self-assessment was completed by 4161 users. User accesses were mainly from Germany (2277/4161, 54.7%) and the United States (474/4161, 11.4%). Approximately 78.9% (3281/4161) of the users reported sexual interest in children; these users were significantly more likely to report distress and trouble owing to their sexual interest. Further, child sexual offenses and consumption of child sexual abuse material were significantly more common among users with sexual interest in children than among users with no sexual interest in children. Additionally, the majority of the offenses were not known to legal authorities.
conclusionsThe Troubled Desire app is useful in reaching out to individuals with sexual interest in prepubescent and early pubescent children. However, future research is warranted to understand the prospective relevance of the Troubled Desire app in the prevention of child sexual offending.
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