20% of calls to Ciivise to denounce sexual violence come from men, compared to 4% three years ago

When it was created three years ago, the Independent Commission on Incest and Sexual Violence Against Children (Ciivise) opened a telephone line, open 24 hours a day, to hear from victims of sexual assault during childhood. When it was implemented in 2021, 4% of calls were made by boys, today there are 20% of them testifying on the line.

Speech is freed in particular thanks to social networks, with the launch of the hashtag #MeTooGarçons, explains Friday March 1 at the microphone of France Culture Emmanuelle Piet, president of the Feminist Collective Against Rape, which runs the hotline. “Boys need to have places to talk, which #MeTooBoys allows”, she emphasizes. Also a maternal and child protection doctor in Seine-Saint-Denis, Emmanuelle Piet denounces “the stupid stereotypes, according to which girls are the victims and boys are the aggressors”which does not leave “not enough space for boys to call themselves victims”.

Men are speaking out more freely, but there has not yet been an assessment of the number of boy victims. “since we haven’t yet given them the floor”, explains Emmanuelle Piet. She also points to a “retreat” of the society : “We are closing the Ciivise, we say to ourselves ‘we have heard enough from the victims, shut up’, the President of the Republic says he is friends with the sexual attackers so he wants to stop the manhunt”, she believes. “We’ll see how this evolves.”