Raj Darjee, Jenny Greensmith
Not just the young: Technology-facilitated sexual abuse by older adults
Workshop Abstract
Technology-facilitated sexual abuse has increased sharply over the past three decades. While patterns of reported contact sexual abuse have changed over time, online offending has risen as digital technologies have expanded.
Advances such as widespread internet access, faster connection speeds, social media, smartphones and AI have created new opportunities for abuse and new challenges for practitioners and policymakers. While online sexual offences are statistically more common among younger adults, a growing pattern of later-life “first-time” online offending is emerging among men aged 50 and over.
This challenges long-held assumptions that age is inherently protective. For this workshop, older adults refers to those aged 50 and over, in line with HMPPS classifications. Within this cohort, offending often develops against a backdrop of isolation, bereavement, relationship strain, health changes or a reduced sense of purpose.
Rather than impulsivity or peer influence, key drivers typically include loneliness, sexual disconnection and the disinhibiting nature of online anonymity. Some age-related factors that reduce the likelihood of contact sexual offending — such as reduced mobility, fewer opportunities for face-to-face interaction, and age-related changes in sexual functioning — are far less protective in online contexts.
Drawing on clinical work in the UK and Australia, and the wider research base, this workshop will explore ageing and technology-facilitated sexual abuse; ageing and sexual behaviour; ageing and sexual offending; and how older adults use digital technologies. Case studies will illustrate how these men offend online, where assumptions about older individuals hold or break down, and how their needs differ from younger online offenders. We will consider practitioner biases, barriers to engagement and how assessment, intervention, risk management and prevention can be adapted.
Older adults often benefit from a different engagement style, as factors such as entrenched shame, bereavement, health changes and reduced social connection can influence how they enter and sustain therapeutic work. The session concludes with tentative hypotheses and priorities for future research, practice and policy relating to technology-facilitated sexual abuse in later life.
About the Speakers
Rajan Darjee is a forensic psychiatrist who has worked in the Scotland and Australia and is currently based in Melbourne, Australia where he is the Clinical Director of Forensic Behavioural Assessment and Consultation Services (FBACS) and adjunct associate professor at the Centre for Forensic Behavioural Science (CFBS), Swinburne University of Technology.
He has extensive experience of assessing, treating, managing and consulting on people who have committed sexual abuse. He has authored over a hundred academic publications, is co-editor of the Routledge International Handbook of Sexual Homicide Studies and is co-author of the Risk for Sexual Violence Protocol-Version 2 (RSVP-V2). His current research is on sexual homicide, online child sexual abuse, and psychosis and homicide. He was previously the Chair of NOTA Scotland.
Jenny Greensmith is Director and Co-Founder of Safer Lives and has worked in criminal justice since 2004. A qualified Probation Officer, she was Treatment Coordinator for sex offender treatment programmes with West Yorkshire Probation Trust and the harmful sexual behaviour specialist at Leeds Youth Offending Service.
At Safer Lives, she has delivered around 700 structured interventions with people who have offended online, giving her extensive specialist experience in this area. She developed the INSIGHT Protective Parents Programme and provides training and consultation on digital risk, assessment and intervention. She is also the founder of Talking Forward, a charity supporting families of online offenders.