[busterarm]

> No matter how or why? That seems like a terrible mandate.

Honestly shocked that anyone would even say this, but even giving you the benefit of the doubt here -- the one case where I could imagine this might not happen would be if you're a police officer investigating such cases. But they also have their own therapists dedicated/trained in police-specific issues.

[Dylan16807]

Even if someone went browsing for it, yes that's illegal but there's no benefit in their therapist reporting them for just visiting terrible websites.

But also there are definitely ways to get accidentally exposed. That's an absolutely awful thing to call the cops over.

[busterarm]

I think you're demonstrating incredibly poor judgment here. CSAM is a crime with real victims. Even if your patient came across it innocently, someone is out there intentionally distributing it and that needs to be investigated.

[AnthonyMouse]

Have you considered the implications of what you're saying?

A whistleblower goes to a therapist, stressed out over their pending decision to reveal official misconduct. They've been investigating ways to post something on the internet that can't be immediately taken down by the corrupt government officials they want to expose. They express their discomfort, in confidence, to their therapist, about using something they've discovered is also used for CSAM.

You think it's a good thing for the therapist to be required to report this? Should they report that the patient admitted to viewing CSAM with no context so the whistleblower gets investigated and arrested, or should they provide the context -- that the patient is about to expose the corruption of the government receiving the report?

For that matter, consider what it does when someone is actually a pedophile. They find out that if they try to seek therapy to address their perverse attraction to kids, the therapist isn't allowed to keep their confidence and they'll be arrested, so instead of seeking professional help, they keep abusing kids. Is that the result we wanted? There is a reason doctor-patient confidentiality was a thing.

[mothballed]

I used to have a good friend that was a stripper (I promise, I wasn't the client...). Some of her biggest customers were people that wanted therapy without the paper trail of going to a licensed therapist. This is a big thing for pilots as well, since their health records and mental care are intensely scrutinized. A stripper will provide comfort, verbal relief, and physical love for $100 hour you can tell them anything and their reputation is bad enough no one will bother to believe them if they say something bad about you.

[gausswho]

Makes you wonder if there's a strip-joint where they're all licensed therapists, but non-practicing.

[busterarm]

Well, in the jurisdictions that I care about the courts and lawmakers have already decided this and the legal requirement is to report.

If its your license to practice on the line you know what choice you're going to make.

[rootusrootus]

Therapy will become progressively more useless as people avoid it because therapists are required to report anything they hear which might be a crime.