Preventing abuse before it happens

Why demand-side prevention

The logic is straightforward: every instance of abuse, and every piece of CSAM, has a person behind it who at some point might have been reached. A meaningful share of people who are attracted to minors do not want to act on it and are looking for help to make sure they never do. Public-health prevention meets them there — before there is a victim — rather than waiting for a crime to detect.

This is uncomfortable terrain, and it is easy to recoil from. But the alternative — offering nothing to someone actively trying not to harm a child — protects no one. The programs below treat that person as someone who can be an ally in preventing abuse, while being unambiguous that viewing CSAM is a serious crime that harms a real child every time it is viewed.

Attraction is not offending

The single distinction this whole field rests on: being attracted to minors is not the same as abusing a child. The first is an unchosen sexual interest; the second is an action and a crime. Many people with this attraction never offend, and prevention programs are built precisely on the finding that attraction does not doom a person to offend.

This matters practically, not just morally: stigma, isolation, and the belief that one is irredeemable are themselves risk factors and barriers to help-seeking. A person who believes there is confidential, non-judgmental support is far likelier to seek it before a crisis than one who believes disclosure means certain ruin.

The programs

The major demand-side programs, across the countries that pioneered them:

• Prevention Project Dunkelfeld

  Germany

  The pioneering program offering confidential, free treatment to people attracted to minors who are not in contact with the justice system. ('Dunkelfeld' = the 'dark field' of undetected cases.)

  ~20,000 contacts over 20 years across 13 sites

  Learn more ↗

• Troubled Desire

  Germany / global

  Dunkelfeld's anonymous, self-guided web tool — a self-assessment and self-help modules — available worldwide in multiple languages for people who cannot access in-person care.

  Thousands of users across dozens of countries

  Learn more ↗

• Stop It Now (UK / Lucy Faithfull Foundation)

  UK / Ireland

  A confidential, anonymous helpline for anyone worried about their own thoughts or behavior, or about someone else's. The global standard for a perpetration-prevention helpline.

  Thousands of helpline contacts each year (0808 1000 900)

  Learn more ↗

• Stop It Now (USA)

  United States

  The US confidential helpline for people concerned about child sexual abuse — including their own thoughts and behavior.

  1-888-773-8368

  Learn more ↗

• 'Help Wanted' (Johns Hopkins Moore Center)

  United States

  An anonymous online prevention course for young people who are attracted to minors, developed by Elizabeth Letourneau's team — the US research flagship, built on the premise that attraction does not doom a person to offend.

  Randomized trial underway

  Learn more ↗

• ReDirection (Protect Children, Finland)

  Finland / global

  An anonymous self-help program reaching people who use CSAM on the dark web, paired with the largest survey of that population to understand and interrupt their behavior.

  26,000+ survey responses; most users report reduced or ceased use

  Learn more ↗

Can you get help anonymously?

This is the decisive question for most people, and the honest answer depends on where you are — because mandatory-reporting law differs:

• Germany — medical confidentiality is strong, and there is no mandatory reporting of undisclosed past offenses, which is precisely why the Dunkelfeld model could exist there. People can disclose attraction and seek treatment without that disclosure triggering a report.
• United Kingdom & Ireland — the Stop It Now helpline is confidential and can be used anonymously; you do not have to give your name to get help and information.
• United States — this is the hardest case: licensed clinicians are generally mandated reporters, and the rules vary by state. Anonymous helplines and self-help tools exist partly to bridge that gap. Understand the specific limits before disclosing; an anonymous helpline can advise on what is and isn't confidential where you live.

The practical takeaway: anonymous helplines and self-guided tools (Troubled Desire, ReDirection) exist specifically so that fear of exposure does not become the reason someone never gets help. Start there if confidentiality is your concern.

Does prevention treatment actually work?

Here is where most resources overclaim, and where being honest is what earns trust. The truthful answer is: the case for offering confidential help is strong, but rigorous proof that treatment reduces offending does not yet exist.

• A 2019 reappraisal (Mokros & Banse) of the Dunkelfeld data found no demonstrated treatment-specific reduction in proneness to offend — a sobering finding for the field's flagship program.
• There is a live debate about iatrogenic (treatment-caused) effects: some research (e.g. Holper and colleagues, 2024) suggests intensive, risk-focused treatment can be counterproductive for genuinely low-risk individuals — a reminder that matching intensity to risk matters.
• The UK's large evaluation of its prison Sex Offender Treatment Programme (Mews et al., 2017) found participants reoffended at a slightly higher rate than comparisons — which led the UK to discontinue that program. Treatment is not automatically beneficial.
• No randomized controlled trial has yet shown that prevention treatment reduces actual offending. The Johns Hopkins 'Help Wanted' RCT is an attempt to generate exactly that evidence.

None of this means prevention is futile — anonymous services demonstrably reach people who want help and have nowhere else to turn, and reducing isolation and increasing help-seeking are worth pursuing on their own terms. It means the field is still building its evidence base, and anyone who tells you prevention treatment is proven to stop offending is ahead of the science. We'd rather tell you the truth.

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Related: Get Help & helplines · For people seeking help · Organization directory · For therapists

Sources include the Prevention Project Dunkelfeld, Lucy Faithfull Foundation, Johns Hopkins Moore Center, Protect Children (Finland), Mokros & Banse (2019), Mews et al. (2017), and Holper et al. (2024). Last reviewed May 2026. Information, not clinical or legal advice.