Map to Hope – Now Running!

DEFEND’s mission is to reduce risk to children and vulnerable people online. The tactics DEFEND utilizes to fulfill their mission are advocacy, technology and education. The first DEFEND project was a petition advocating for laws that implemented age/ID verification on all social media sites to protect children from being contacted by random adults. It is those random adults that DEFEND is targeting. More precisely DEFEND is focusing on minor attracted persons (MAPs) to take part in the Map to Hope program. It is a non-judgemental, safe support group for minor attracted persons who are committed to not harming children in person or online, which includes not creating, consuming or distributing child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Every Tuesday at 1 p.m. EST on Zoom the Map to Hope support group meets. It is a rehabilitative approach, DEFEND does not expect participants to turn their cameras on and invite attendees to speak only if and when comfortable. Lastly, there is no obligation to come every Tuesday. 

The reasoning behind the group is based on Dr. James Cantor, PhD, former University of Toronto professor, psychologist and sexologist’s research  “acting on . . . [a proclivity for minors]  is not what they are struggling against; it is the loneliness, isolation and [feeling they do not have a]  life worth living,” Cantor made his name at Toronto’s Center for Addiction and Mental Health researching pedophiles. He studied MRI scans and suggested pedophiles’ predilection for children was hard-wired in their brains (Blackwell, 2020).

Dr. Cantor’s expertise combined with specially trained facilitators of the Map to Hope program the intent “is about helping these people live a connected life; it lets them have somebody to get feedback from,” Dr. Cantor explains, “People do the worst things when they feel isolated.” DEFEND has developed Map to Hope to reduce the likelihood of criminal behavior and to offer help. 

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