WhatsOK gives young people who have questions about their sexual thoughts, feelings, or behaviors a confidential place to get help. This project tests whether it works.
At a glance
Question
Does the WhatsOK helpline reduce harmful sexual behavior and improve mental wellbeing among adolescents?
Partners
Stop it Now!
Funder
World Childhood Foundation and MOORE (with funding from Oak Foundation) and CDC
Timeline
2021-Present
Why it matters
Up to 77% of self-reported sexual harm against youth is committed by other young people [Finkelhor source]. Help for these youth has mostly been available through clinical or juvenile justice settings.
What we’re doing
Phase 1 · 2021 to 2023
Testing the feasibility and usability of WhatsOK
In this phase we assessed if youth will use the WhatsOK service and if so, what are their needs?
Funded by Stop It Now! (with funding from World Childhood Foundation)
Phase 2 · 2023 to 2025
Following helpline users
We enrolled users of WhatsOK in a study to check in with them four times over a year to understand how their experience with the helpline may have altered their trajectory and prevented potential instances of sexual harm. In this phase, we also initiated an anonymous youth advisory group. These youth continue to provide critical input on youths’ motivations for participating in research, ideas for further study, and recommendations for keeping youth safe in ongoing research.
Funded by MOORE, Johns Hopkins University (with funding from Oak Foundation)
Phase 3 · 2025 to 2029
Testing whether it works
We are now running a randomized trial with about 1,300 youth ages 14 to 17, comparing WhatsOK helpline services with a waitlist control. The main outcomes are harmful sexual behavior online and offline; we also measure help-seeking and mental wellbeing..
Funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
What we’ve learned so far
Young people are both willing to discuss problematic sexual behavior and value research on this topic.
Young people are eager for spaces that offer non-judgmental, anonymous support around the topic of sexual behavior.
Most users of the WhatsOK helpline discussed concerns or actions indicating risk to cause sexual harm, and most users reached out prior to seeking external help.
plain language from MOORE
Papers from this project
Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 2026
Recruiting Young People Online for Research on Problematic Sexual Behavior
What worked when recruiting young people online for research on problematic sexual behavior.
Prevention Science, 2025
Involving Youth with Lived Experience in Research on Problematic Sexual Behavior
Young people with concerns about their sexual behavior were open to taking part in research and saw it as important.
Archives of Sexual Behavior, 2025
Reaching Youth Through a Social Media Campaign: Costs and Outcomes
A case study of the social media campaign used to reach youth with questions about their sexual behavior, and what it cost.
Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 2024
Early Findings from WhatsOK Helpline Inquiries
More than half of young people who contacted WhatsOK had caused, or were at risk of causing, sexual harm, and most reached out before seeking other professional help.
Journal of Prevention, 2023
How WhatsOK Was Built: A Practitioner Narrative
How the WhatsOK website and helpline were planned, piloted, and refined, and how evaluation was built in.
Funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (ADD HERE PI Bright) as well as part of a five-year program of research – Prevention Global – funded by the Oak Foundation (OFIL-20-257; PIs E. Letourneau & M. Seto; Subaward PI Bright) to evaluate child sexual abuse perpetration prevention interventions. Prevention Global is led by MOORE at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in partnership with The Royal’s Institute of Mental Health Research.. The opinions expressed in this presentation are those of the authors; They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the funding organizations or their members.
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