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posted by on Thursday June 08 2017, @06:06PM   Printer-friendly
from the think-of-the-children dept.

In a maximum security mental health facility in Montreal is a "cave-like" virtual reality vault that's used to show images of child sexual abuse to sex offenders. Patients sit inside the vault with devices placed around their penises to measure signs of arousal as they are shown computer-generated animations of naked children.

"We do develop pornography, but these images and animations are not used for the pleasure of the patient but to assess them," said Patrice Renaud, who heads up the project at the Institut Philippe-Pinel. "It's a bit like using a polygraph but with other measurement techniques."

The system, combined with other psychological assessments, is used to build up a profile of the individual's sexual preferences that can be used by the court to determine the risk they pose to society and by mental health professionals to determine treatment.

[...] The patients sit on a stool inside the chamber wearing stereoscopic glasses which create the three-dimensional effect on the surrounding walls. The glasses are fitted with eye-tracking technology to ensure they aren't trying to trick the system by avoiding looking at the critical content.

Source: The Guardian


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  • (Score: 2) by tfried on Thursday June 08 2017, @08:29PM (3 children)

    by tfried (5534) on Thursday June 08 2017, @08:29PM (#522775)

    The problem is not if people get excited. It's if they act in a detrimental way to it.

    That's true, and I don't want to hand those researchers a free pass. But accepting that they really are trying to find a solution to an existing (aka convicted) problem, it seems reasonable to try to assess the root cause of the problem. For one thing, it is known that child abuse does not necessarily have a strong relation to actual paedophile tendencies. "Power" is another important motive to consider, for instance.

    Not sure if the method described here is better than a plain standardized questionnaire, or - gasp - a face-to-face interview, but the idea itself is not necessarily evil at all.

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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 08 2017, @10:08PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 08 2017, @10:08PM (#522818)

    That's true, and I don't want to hand those researchers a free pass.

    Not sure if the method described here is better than a plain standardized questionnaire, or - gasp - a face-to-face interview, but the idea itself is not necessarily evil at all.

    Do you realize how much I want to godwin this thread right now? But I'll hold off and simply say that the researchers know (or should know) the implications of what they are doing, and they should be held to account.

    "We are trying to create a better way of preventing child molestation." That's good.

    "We are creating something with huge false-positive ratings and huge false-negative ratings. Moreover, if it catches on, it will effectively make certain thoughts illegal." That's horrible, and they deserve all the criticism they get.

    Do we want to live in a society where desires and thoughts are punishable? What's to stop a Minority Report dystopia from forming? "You show show a tendency to shoplift, off to jail with you before you actually commit a crime."

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by tfried on Friday June 09 2017, @07:22AM

      by tfried (5534) on Friday June 09 2017, @07:22AM (#522961)

      You assume that they will act on the results in a particular way. You assume they will keep those who do get aroused locked in forever (or something along these lines). Unfortunately, that assumption is not entirely baseless, but it is still an assumption.

      Now consider for a minute that they could be trying to actually help. That they might think of themselves not just as highly educated prison guards, but are actually trying to help the inmates get out, eventually. That they could be trying to help the inmates to understand and control whatever got them into jail/hospital. Wouldn't that imply, very, very naturally trying to understand to what degree their patients have real paedophile tendencies, and to what degree they'll have to look elsewhere? Their job is to deal with those who were convicted - for good reasons or for bad. How exactly are they supposed to do their job?

      This method is a tool. I'm not so sure it is a good tool, but a tool like this is definitely needed.

      This method is a tool. A tool with a high potential for abuse, but that's because the topic is toxic, not the tool.

  • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Thursday June 08 2017, @10:24PM

    by kaszz (4211) on Thursday June 08 2017, @10:24PM (#522821) Journal

    Considering the fucked up state of US laws and their application. These people may simply be two underage persons convicted of having a relationship or the horror of sexting. So even the fallacy of assuming correct conviction goes away.

    As for the power issue. Maybe some clear and pedagogical education of adult courting and relationships right in school before puberty would be beneficial. That way adult relationships seems less intimidating and there will not be a fallback to the easy and abusive way out.