When You Are Warned This Is An Obvious Risk To Be Avoided.

This appeared last week:

GPs warned to avoid intimate examinations of kids over telehealth

Doctors say it is important children learn it is never appropriate to expose their genitalia to a camera

25th August 2022

By Siobhan Calafiore

Intimate examinations of children via telehealth might inadvertently increase the risk of online sexual grooming, GPs are being warned.

Asking a child to undress in front of a phone or computer camera, even for a medical examination with a parent present, may normalise the type of behaviour that sexual predators would encourage, according to paediatric endocrinologists writing in the Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health.

Dr Jacky Hewitt said she co-authored the journal letter after the issue arose during her own consults. 

“Since the pandemic, we’ve seen quite a number of families via telehealth who have tried to undress their child to show the physical development of their chest or genital area over web camera,” she told Australian Doctor.

“Some said they had done it to their GP as well when they first sought care.”

Another concern was that the devices could be hacked and footage from the consultations downloaded, she added.

She said all intimate examinations of minors should be done in person.

“Telehealth is such a new field. I think a number of doctors have not had the time to think about appropriate boundaries and the use of the technology.” 

In their letter, Dr Hewitt and her co-authors said there was a “pandemic of online child sexual grooming and abuse”. 

They cited Swedish research that found a rapid escalation in distribution of child sexual abuse material during the COVID-19 pandemic, including one dark-web forum for child exploitation where the number of users tripled. 

“It is now very important to model appropriate behaviour for young people in the presence of camera recording, and physical examination of a child’s sex characteristics in front of a camera is not therefore appropriate,” said Dr Hewitt and her colleagues, from Monash Children’s Hospital in Melbourne. 

Georgie Haysom from indemnity provider Avant said she was not aware of any medicolegal claims against doctors that stemmed from this issue.

But she backed Dr Hewitt’s stance.

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More information: J Paediatr Child Health 2022; 17 Aug.

More here:

https://www.ausdoc.com.au/news/gps-warned-avoid-intimate-examinations-kids-over-telehealth

With telehealth so widely used these days it is worth being aware of the risk and acting accordingly.

David.