France is confronting the scale of sexual violence against minors with figures that are hard to absorb: one child is reportedly raped or sexually assaulted every three minutes, and CIIVISE estimates that 160,000 children are victims of these crimes every year. The rape and murder of 11-year-old Lyhanna in May shocked the country and has accelerated work on a new legislative response.

A comprehensive law after Lyhanna

The plan under discussion is a 'comprehensive law' covering the full chain of the state's response: from preventative measures to the judicial response, including the protection and support of victims. It is the named next step in France's handling of sexual violence against minors, and it is being drafted against a backdrop of public anger after Lyhanna's death.

The statute of limitations debate

Within that debate, one strand concerns time limits for bringing cases. Since 2018, the statute of limitations for rapes committed against minors has been 30 years from the age of majority - meaning victims can pursue charges until they are 48 - while cases from before 2018 follow different rules. Half of EU member states have abolished statutes of limitations for the most serious sexual crimes.

Survivor advocates argue the current framework fails victims whose recollections surface only years later. Mié Kohiyama, who was raped at five by her cousin, says she lived with traumatic amnesia for 32 years before her memories of the incident returned; she co-founded Be Brave France and campaigns to abolish statutes of limitations altogether. Addressing the National Assembly in April, she described victims meeting rejection from the courts as devastating in itself, and said: "You have to be incredibly strong not to give up and kill yourself."

Lawyer Carine Durrieu-Diebolt takes a legal line on the same question: she says abolishing the statute of limitations would simplify the law and give everyone the same legal framework, though DNA evidence degrades over time. She also argues investigators should use more of the tools available to them in preliminary investigations, such as home searches and wiretaps. "Wiretaps are very rarely used in these cases, whereas in drug cases, all these measures are employed," she says.

Tracking offenders online

A second front in France's response is online exploitation. 'Punisher' has spent six years as a volunteer with Les Enfants d'Argus tracking online child sex offenders; the association says he has helped identify more than 200 individuals. Volunteers often create fake profiles of children to monitor the requests that they receive, compile files on the offenders and forward them to the authorities.

The state's own workload is heavy. OFMIN, the national office, received approximately 200,000 reports in 2025 - nearly 500 every day - while its director Aurélie Besançon says the office has only about 60 agents.

New technology is complicating the picture further. Artificial intelligence now lets offenders create or modify images and videos in a highly realistic manner using the face of a child, which complicates investigations. Ninon Bajard warns of the consequences: "The rule in 2026 is simple: don't believe anything you see online. If there's even the slightest doubt, don't send anything, so you can't be blackmailed."

Prevention: talking to potential perpetrators

The third strand is prevention aimed at people at risk of offending. There are 27 Sexual Violence Resource Centres (CRIAVS) across France, and most run a free, confidential helpline for people who are sexually attracted to children.

Those who work in the system say the profile of offenders is often misunderstood. Mathias Poiteau, a psychologist at Le Vinatier Hospital in Lyon, says the vast majority of people who commit sexual acts against minors do not have a paedophilic attraction, instead showing immaturity or issues of control and domination.

The STOP helpline is seeing growing demand: it received more than 4,500 calls in 2025, triple the number of calls as the year it was launched, 2021. Laure Vivier, medical secretary at CRIAVS Rhône-Alpes, explains the reasoning behind offering people a place to talk: "we need to talk to them so that the fantasy remains just a fantasy".

The programme's organisers acknowledge a known limit: calling the helpline does not mean that the person will subsequently agree to medical or psychological treatment. The comprehensive law - covering prevention, the judicial response and the protection and support of victims - is the next step France has named in response to the scale the figures describe.