Background: Despite 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). Objective: The aim of this study was to describe the characteristics of the users of the Troubled Desire app. Methods: The 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. Results: The 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. Conclusions: The 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.

中文翻译：

---

陷入困境的欲望用户的特征，这是一个基于Web的针对儿童有性兴趣的个人的自我管理应用程序：自我评估数据的描述性分析

背景：尽管儿童性犯罪的发生率很高，并且可获得的儿童性虐待材料数量不断增加，但全球仍缺乏针对性行为风险个体的预防性干预措施。基于网络的应用程序“问题困扰”旨在通过为处于青春期前和青春期的儿童中有性兴趣的个人（即分别具有恋童癖和嗜血性恋爱的儿童）提供不同语言的自我评估和自我管理培训模块，以解决这一短缺问题。 。目的：本研究的目的是描述“问题困扰”应用程序用户的特征。方法：在2017年10月25日至2020年4月25日的研究的前30个月内收集了完整完成的自我评估数据。主要结局指标是（1）社会人口统计学信息和（2）“动荡的欲望”使用者的性兴趣和性行为。结果：自我评估由4161位用户完成。用户访问主要来自德国（2277/4161，54.7％）和美国（474/4161，11.4％）。大约78.9％（3281/4161）的用户表示对儿童有性兴趣；这些用户由于其性兴趣而更有可能报告困扰和麻烦。此外，在对儿童有性兴趣的使用者中，儿童性犯罪和对儿童性虐待材料的消费要比对儿童无性兴趣的使用者更为普遍。此外，大多数违法行为是法律当局不知道的。结论：Troubled Desire应用程序可用于吸引对青春期前和青春期早期儿童有性兴趣的个人。但是，有必要进行进一步的研究来了解“问题困扰”应用程序在预防儿童性犯罪方面的潜在相关性。