Scalable Technology for Online Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse and Child Sexual Abuse Materials

ended

There is no doubt about a tremendous increase in available child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on the internet in recent years. According to the 15 years experience of the “Kein Taeter werden”, a network (made up of 11 university hospitals in Germany) offering free and confidential treatment to individuals seeking therapeutic help because they feel sexually attracted to children, many CSAM users are pedophilically and/or hebephilcally inclined. However, law enforcement agencies are limited in their possibilities to detect suspects and provide sufficient evidence for criminal activities, so most of these offences occur undetected or not investigated. It is therefore necessary to improve cause-related strategies to reduce the use of CSAM. STOP-CSAM will (a) reach potential/actual offenders (b) redirect them to a preventive online intervention and (c) test the efficacy of the intervention. The intervention, an appointment-based interactive Therapist Chat Service (TCS), will be implemented on the established website www.troubled-desire.com. The TCS will be operated by qualified therapists in 5 EU languages based on the Berlin Dissexuality Therapy (BEDIT), which is specifically designed to focus on individuals managing behaviour in a non-offending way. The scalability of the TCS will be explored by incorporating machine learning and launching a prototype of an AI-Assisted TCS in 2 languages. This will reduce the time required for therapists to interact with users. The AI will not operate autonomously. The therapist will remain in full control of the interaction. Outcomes will be evaluated, and insights will be disseminated to stakeholders such as therapists, LEAs and policy makers. This project will result in a cause-oriented concept with the potential to scale up to any needed extent. STOP-CSAM will prevent offending, and thus spare victims of the consequences of offending, including psychological, social and physical impacts.