This is a first in France.
A prevention campaign aimed directly at pedophiles was launched last Friday.
On the posters, the photo of a little boy on his way to school or even of a girl at the swimming pool, followed by this question:
"Do you see her?
Are you sexually attracted to children?
Do not go further.
A healthcare professional can help you. ”
The campaign refers to a listening number dedicated to pedophiles in order to avoid taking action (08 06 23 10 63).
This device called STOP (telephone guidance and prevention service) was first tested for a year in five regions before becoming national.
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“I was at the end of my rope, I couldn't find the strength to fight on my own. I made this step as a last resort, to go and deposit this “internal struggle”, this suffering that is my pedophilia with someone so as not to cross the red line ”,
confides Eliott *, a thirty-something who dialed this number Last year.
Before calling, he had never dared to speak about it, for
"fear of rejection"
or
"of being considered a criminal".
At the other end of the phone, health professionals from the Resource Centers for Intervenors with Perpetrators of Sexual Violence (Criavs) listen, assess the need for care and can direct callers to medical care.
Eliott was thus quickly able to be followed by a psychiatrist.
He himself suffered sexual violence when he was younger.
“I had not made the connection but, undeniably, it contributed to my construction.
I realized that I had built myself on the model of my attackers, ”he
analyzes retrospectively.
"The safeguards were falling"
Very isolated before his call, Eliott went through an episode of
"great depression".
“All the safeguards, all the barriers that I had put in place were falling.
I felt I could potentially become dangerous.
Either I took action, or I destroyed myself completely.
I told myself that there was a third way: to talk about it, ”he
explains.
Today, the thirty-something believes that he can
"keep this attraction under control more easily",
thanks to this support.
If ever I were to be too invaded, to lose control, I know that I will have this recourse to be able to quickly orient myself towards someone.
The main stake is to manage to live with this attraction without it presenting a danger for the children or for me. ”
There is a
"real need"
to be able to welcome this word, underlines the psychiatrist Mathieu Lacambre, before recalling that the objective of the number is
"to avoid a passage to the act, such as the downloading of child pornography or a sexual assault on a minor ”.
Convinced of the great usefulness of this number, which has already made it possible to support 340 callers during the experimentation phase, Criavs professionals are however aware that this poster campaign may offend public opinion.
“We know there is resistance.
It's not easy to explain that we work with people attracted to children, but we felt that mentalities were starting to change, ”
notes Anne-Hélène Moncany, president of the Criavs federation.
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Victims and child protection associations were also consulted to help develop campaign posters.
“They encouraged us to be more impactful, it shows the urgency they feel on their side,”
reports Cécile Miele, psychologist and sexologist at Criavs.
While the wave of denunciation of sexual violence against minors took on an unprecedented scale after the publication of Camille Kouchner's book,
La Familia grande
, Adrien Taquet considered that it was a
"historic opportunity to operate a change of society ”
on this issue.
During the launching day of the campaign, in Toulouse, the Secretary of State in charge of Children and Families judged that it was necessary to activate
"all the levers to fight against this scourge",
including that of prevention .
A similar device has also existed for several years in Germany and Great Britain.
"We will not be able to reduce sexual violence if we only take care of the victims,"
pleads Nathalie Canale, a psychologist of the device.
It would be as if road safety was only aimed at pedestrians. "
* The first name has been changed.