An internet-based intervention for individuals concerned about their sexual urges towards children
Prevent It is an anonymous, internet-based program for individuals (18+), independent of whether they have sexually offended or not, who are concerned about their sexual urges towards children. The aim is to prevent child sexual abuse and exploitation. It is a revision of a previously established and tested Swedish prevention program that focused on users of child sexual abuse material. The first version of the program proved to be effective, safe, and well-appreciated ( Lätth et al., 2022 ). The revised Prevent It program is available in English, Swedish, Portuguese, and German.
The Swedish, Portuguese, and German versions of Prevent It are part of the EU-funded PRIORITY project, whereas the English version of Prevent It is funded by the Global Perpetration Prevention project (GPP, funded by the Oak Foundation).
The aim of Prevent It is to teach ways to cope with sexual interest, feelings, thoughts and urges towards children, and to increase quality of life. After completion of the intervention, participants will learn how to maintain the changes they have made.
About the Program
The Prevent It program is an internet-based cognitive-behavioral therapy (iCBT). iCBT is a well-established and scientifically validated form of psychotherapy that has been demonstrated to be effective for a wide range of problems.
Prevent It contains 9 different modules with short motivational video sequences, worksheets, and individual feedback from a personal therapist/ counsellor. All conversations between participants and therapists/ counsellors are done via an anonymous online chat or messaging function within the platform. Although the modules are intended to be completed on a weekly basis, participants are able to complete them at their own pace, offering them the flexibility to complete the corresponding lessons and activities at a pace that works best for them.
Are you concerned about your sexual urges towards children?
Participate in Prevent It!
- Learn how to deal with your feelings and thoughts
- Learn to live according to your values
- Formulate new goals
- Learn new healthy ways to engage in sexual behavior
Who can participate?
- Individuals who are 18+ years old (regardless of gender) who are concerned about their sexual urges towards children
- Regardless of whether they have committed child sexual abuse or used child sexual abuse material or not
- Participants need sufficient language skills in either English, Swedish, Portuguese or German
- Prevent It is also open to individuals who are under suspicion of law enforcement or who are involved in ongoing criminal investigation.
How can you participate?
The program is free of charge, and available in English, Swedish, Portuguese and German through the well-established online platform “Iterapi” which was developed by the Department of Behavioural Sciences and Learning at Linköping University (LiU), Sweden. There are several security features built into the platform and many measures have been taken to increase participant security and enable them to stay anonymous (two-step authentication, data is stored in a decrypted form, Javascript can be disabled, no personal data or email address is required for registration). The platform is also available as an onion site when using Tor Browser.
You can access the Prevent It program via the link below.
You can also use this onion link:
https://6wvybf7ub3xk5ow66wt7os3aovbzoo2eei6vjirvhvvkmqg4alnezzid.onion/sites/preventit/register
Quotes from participants
Below are a selection of positive quotes from previous participants. You can see a full list of both positive and negative quotes in the research article (Lätth et al., 2022) .
“I have sharply reduced my undesirable sexual behavior.”
“It has given me hope to change my behavior, and it has provided me with useful tools to do it. I has shown me that I can be the owner of my behaviors and that I can take control of my life, even though I still have a lot of work to do.”
“I feel more aware of my activities and much of the time the techniques work to avoid activity that is morally wrong.”
“Helped me to reflect on my sexual behavior and desires. I took some very helpful methods to deal with my attraction to minors. I learned a lot about the relation between feelings and behavior. My impression is that the therapists and creators of the study are very respectful towards the participants and do not have any prejudices against them.”
“For the first time, I've felt like there was a way for me to get better. The therapists were very kind and encouraging. Some of the study materials turned out to be really helpful as a whole.”
“I have had an increased understanding of myself, and the issues I will have to deal with from now on. I am thankful for the feedback from the therapists, their review of my work on myself has helped me gain insight and confidence in my ability to manage these behaviors.”
“Communicating thoughts and feelings with the therapist was good. Being able to "talk" to someone without judgement who knew that I am a pedophile helped me confront my behavior. Admitting to myself that I have a problem has helped me to reduce/stop accessing CSAM."