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I don't know what to think.

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Isa

Member since
March 2019

1 post

Posted Wed April 3, 2019 12:10amReport post

Hello everyone. I found myself here after searching for help and advice. I'm so confused and don't know where to turn. I have a 22 year old learning disabled son who's autistic and has psychosis, needs support workers to go out and supervise cooking and all life skills etc. He stopped taking his medication a few weeks ago against our advice. He had a psychotic episode a couple of days ago and told me had looked at 2 images of "child porn" on his computer. He said many other irrational things too that we knew were nonsense. These things I knew were not reality. He couldn't tell the difference between fantasy and reality. I was so shocked and upset I had a panic attack. He told me he searched for "child porn" on YouTube and 2 images came up of clothed children then he said one was clothed and one was naked at the bottom part. My adult daughter checked all his computer memory and there was nothing on there at all and thought you couldn't just search for "child porn" on YouTube and images would appear. Does anyone know if this is the case or do you have to download it somehow? My son has just said again that he deleted the 2 links of the "child porn" tonight. I'm older and severely traumatised and don't know whether my son has done this or not. I don't want to be the mother who says "Oh no, not my son" I would be surprised as he's never showed any interest in sex before and says he doesn't want a girlfriend or any relationships, he's very child like and watches cartoons etc but still knows that this is wrong. Can someone please give me any ideas how I could find out if he has done this. I can't sleep and can't eat and don't know what to do. Best wishes to all of you going through this, stay strong.

Jaded

Member since
December 2018

202 posts

Posted Wed April 3, 2019 8:12amReport post

Hi, I don’t think there’s any way you can absolutely tell if he’s done this unless you get the computer forensically examined. If you inform the authorities my guess is that they’ll panic and over react.

But I would think that putting those terms into a YouTube search facility wouldn’t throw up anything. It’s only an assumption but would hope that those search terms would not be facilitated on a massive platform like YouTube.....but I’m no expert!

You could try and ask a computer forensic professional for advice, they usually respond to queries for free. I did when our situation started and every single one of them were hugely helpful and didn’t over react at all. They actually calmed me down a lot.

Is it possible that your son is having an psychotic episode? My friends son is similar. When he’s unwell he usually starts by believing he’s done all sorts of things including CSA (he hasn’t, some things he claims are impossible)

its also possible that he’s saying this for attention?

Maybe you should consider speaking to his mental health keyworker? Be prepared for the possibility that they inform the police though.

Id definitely ask the advice of a computer expert first but it sounds as if curiosity may be at work here.



Good luck, Jaded

Big sigh

Member since
December 2018

244 posts

Posted Wed April 3, 2019 3:13pmReport post

Hi - I think there is a function on YouTube on “settings” where you can check the history, if he has not deleted it. Just make sure that you have all the settings on from now on which don’t let him access anything inappropriate. You can put restrictions on your actual broadband and also on any device which has mobile data. Then even if he tries then he shouldn’t be able to get very far.