During its first month a new chatbot launched by the Stop It Now! helpline to deter users of the sexually explicit video site Pornhub from searching for footage of the sexual abuse of children was triggered more than 11,000 times. The figures come from the Flemish Welfare Minister Caroline Gennez (socialist) in response to a question from the Flemish nationalist member of the Flemish Parliament Freya Perdaens.
Chatbot on Pornhub to deter child abuse was triggered 11,000 times in the first month since its launch
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The Stop It Now! helpline has long offered confidential advice and support to people concerned about either their own paedophilic tendencies or the (suspected) paedophilic tendences or those close to them. In August Stop It Now! launched a pilot project on the pornographic video site Pornhub that triggers an AI-powered chatbot whenever a user enters search terms referring to child sexual abuse. Previously, Pornhub only displayed a warning message.
The chatbot now engages with users directly and offers them guidance and access to help. The tool is modelled on a chatbot that was developed by the Lucy Faithfull Foundation in the UK. During its first 18 months on Pornhub UK, the the Lucy Faithfull Foundation’s chatbot has achieved promising results. 82% per cent of users stopped looking for illegal images after one warning and hundreds went on to seek help.
“Incredible”
Ms Perdaens describes the figures as "incredible”. "In less than a month, the chatbot has been triggered no fewer than 11,100 times”.
Minne De Boeck is a criminologist at the University Forensic Centre and is the project coordinator for Stop It Now! Flanders. She told the press agency Belga that the aim is to reach people before they offend or reoffend. “The number of people searching for sexual images of children remains disturbingly high. We want to support those who are motivated to change their behaviour and are actively seeking help, to prevent them from reoffending. The more places we can be at to reach this group, the more child sexual abuse we will be able to prevent.”
A full evaluation of the pilot project on Pornhub will be published in December.