We must go further than mere safety rules, however, and establish a genuine dialogue between adults and children about risk situations and the attitudes children are to adopt in such situations and with adults in general. To this end, the display of the freephone 119 number has been made compulsory in all places which receive or accommodate children. It is important to be able to detect child sexual abuse at the earliest possible stage and provide the necessary care for the victim, both physically, when appropriate, and, more especially, psychologically. Treating the child's trauma can prevent the appearance in adult life of behaviour dangerous to himself and to others, such as suicide, prostitution, and also a repetition of the sexual abuse of children. Work must be done with the victims so that they themselves, when they reach adulthood, do not regard children as sex objects.
Prison removes the criminal or offender from society for the period of the sentence.
However, though being found guilty and sent to prison has an essential function in reminding sex attackers of the law, these measures are not capable in themselves of bringing about a thoroughgoing change in their behaviour. Without therapeutic attention, an individual is likely to remain a paedophile during and after his prison sentence. Prison is generally a first stage in the reorganization of the sexual abuser's mindset, but it is not sufficient in itself. There are anti-hormonal treatments which enable the sex drive to be diminished, if not indeed entirely suppressed. Such courses of treatment are commonly prescribed in the Anglo-Saxon and Germanic world, though their use in France is at the experimental stage.