The STOP-CSAM project is funded by the European Commission and led by the Charité University Hospital in Berlin with the collaboration of UIC Barcelona among other European institutions.  It offers consumers of child sexual abuse material an innovative online therapy in different languages. The main objective of this pioneering project is to contribute to the prevention of sexual violence against children and adolescents at an international level.

The team of researchers at UIC Barcelona, led by psychiatrist and forensic physician Esperanza Gómez, forensic psychologist Thuy Nguyen and psychologist and research methodology expert Carlos García-Forero, was responsible for offering this therapy in Spanish and analysing its effectiveness at a global level.

The project recruited some 400 people between October 2023 and October 2024, who participated in a four-week online therapy through an anonymous chat with specialist therapists, available in English, German, Czech, Portuguese and Spanish. As the results of the study have shown, more than 50% of the people who consume child sexual abuse material who have received the treatment have stopped viewing this type of content. In addition, approximately 80% of the participants managed to reduce the time and/or severity of the content they consumed by the end of the treatment. Likewise, significant improvements in the mental well-being of the participants have been detected.

Researchers explain that more than 90% of participants are men, of which 60% are between the ages of 18 and 30. Almost half have completed secondary education and more than a third have higher education. All reported having recently consumed child sexual exploitation material prior to initiating therapy. However, they had no criminal or judicial history of a sexual nature, nor had they committed sexual abuse against minors. These were necessary conditions for participation in the study.

The team of researchers from the Department of Medicine highlighted that the results are promising and stress that the potential of online treatment to engage people with problematic sexual behaviours, reduce the negative impact of their behaviour and improve their mental health. At the same time, they stressed that “just the fact of being able to access an anonymous help resource already acts as a motivating agent to start changing their problematic behaviour”.

Forensic psychologist Thuy Nguyen insisted that until now, Spain and other countries have lacked such programmes, which made it difficult to intervene in a population at risk who would otherwise have difficulty accessing adequate treatment services. “Thanks to STOP-CSAM, a global tool is being offered to prevent harmful behaviours and provide a vital resource for those seeking help,” she added.

Esperanza Gómez, emphasised that STOP-CSAM has been a pioneering project to demonstrate the potential for prevention of anonymous therapeutic interventions with people who consume and seek help without being detected. The success of this experience has been recognised by Johns Hopkins University and The Oak Foundation USA, which have already funded the new two-year TD-CHAT project as part of the Prevention Global initiative. This project will expand the promising results of STOP-CSAM, including broader inclusion criteria and evaluating additional intervention conditions.