09/30/2026
Stop It Now! Director, Jenny Coleman, was recently interviewed as part of Slate.com'spiece on prevention-based helplines:
"...'if we’re going to create an environment where kids grow up safe from harm, we need to include all of the people that impact that, and that includes the people who are at risk or who are already abusing.'
Last year, Coleman’s team responded to 2,500 calls about child s*xual abuse, 61 percent of which were from abusers and those at-risk to abuse. Coleman explained that when answering the phones, the first step is often correcting the way callers think. Some will argue that they’re not abusers because they’ve only looked at child s*xual abuse material, but haven’t touched a child. The response is: 'Well, this is abuse. This is illegal. This is harmful. Let’s talk about that.' The helpline doesn’t offer therapy, but instead directs callers to professionals who are trained in treating harmful s*xual behaviors.
While the people who answer these phone lines are required to report any illegal behavior they hear about, this can be hard to do because the helplines offer complete anonymity to the person calling. Unless the caller volunteers their name or other identifying information, there’s not much that can be done. However, for everyone I spoke to, anonymity was absolutely paramount to the work they were trying to accomplish."
Read the full article: https://slate.com/technology/2026/06/domestic-abuse-violence-hotlines-controversy.html
*xualabuseprevention
