Understand Your Triggers

What sparks harmful online behaviour?

This exercise explores the hidden steps that can lead to harmful or illegal behaviour online. We’ll look at how feelings, thinking patterns, and even your surroundings can play a role. Recognising these risks can help you spot the warning signs and avoid getting caught up in harmful online activity.

 

David Finkelhor’s Four Preconditions Model proposes that four conditions must be met for online offending to occur. It emphasises the sequential nature of these factors, meaning each precondition depends on the fulfillment of the one before it.

  1.  Offender Predisposition: This refers to the offender having certain characteristics that make them more likely to offend online. It includes:
    • Emotional congruence: Finding emotional satisfaction or fulfillment in online offending.
    • Sexual arousal
    • Blocked needs: Inability to meet emotional or sexual needs in non-abusive ways.
  1. Overcoming Internal Inhibitors: These are internal factors that normally prevent someone from acting on their unhealthy desires. Overcoming them could involve:
    • Minimising the harm of abuse.
    • Justifying the abuse through fantasies or beliefs.
    • Reducing feelings of guilt or shame.
  1. Overcoming External Inhibitors: These are external factors that make it difficult to act carry out harmful online behaviours, such as:
    • Presence of others.
    • Societal norms against the harmful online activity.
  1. Overcoming Resistance: This refers to getting away with carrying out the harmful online behaviour.

Here is an example of how this model can be applied, based on ‘Driving over the speed limit’.

MOTIVATION

‘Wanting to’

I really need to get to get to that meeting. 
I was late last time. The boss will not be impressed if I’m late again.
Buzz of driving fast.
I love my car.
I love this road, there’s never any traffic jams.
Anxiety

OVERCOMING INTERNAL INHIBITORS

‘Conscience’

I know the speed limit is 50 mph, but there are no houses.
I’m a good driver. 
Serious accidents don’t happen on roads like this.as late last time. 
Look at those cars. Hardly anyone is sticking to the speed limit.
The law is wrong.
I’ve got to get to my meeting on time.

OVERCOMING EXTERNAL INHIBITORS

‘Creating Opportunity’

Check mirrors for police.
Wait for some faster cars to overtake.
Get to the straight stretch where you can see well ahead before speeding up.

ACTION

‘Doing it and getting away with it’

Put foot down on accelerator. 
Slow down at bridges in case of cameras.
Drive in the inside lane when clear to try to avoid mobile camera.
Keep checking mirrors and slow down when see any white cars.

Exercise

This exercise involves you detailing the key steps you think led you towards harmful online behaviour and how that process developed. The aim is to help you to recognise the decisions you made based on your thoughts and feelings. The purpose is to identify both behavioural and emotional steps to your behaviour. Each step can include lifestyle issues e.g. increasing use of alcohol, social and emotional isolation, details of your thoughts, feelings and situations that were present at the time. Also, identify examples of trigger events.


By outlining the key steps that led you to harmful online behaviour, it should be possible to identify if and when these thoughts, feelings and situations are developing again. This is turn, will enable you to do something about it and avoid further offending by employing positive coping strategies.


Referring to the above model, identify between 5 and 8 key steps for your own harmful online behaviour. For each step, identify the SITUATION, the THOUGHTS associated with it and the accompanying FEELINGS. This should enable you to identify the decisions you made. Then detail the ACTIONS/ BEHAVIOUR you took as a consequence.

Here is a worked example.