—“We are well aware that this is an unorthodox way for a national health authority to advertise its services,” says specialist psychologist Martin Sjøly.

Article written by Nora Holm Aftret, November 19, 2025.

Sjøly is referring to the Norwegian Directorate of Health’s upcoming ad campaign on Pornhub to promote their service “Det Finnes Hjelp”, which is aimed at people who want help in dealing with their sexual thoughts about children. Pornhub is the world’s biggest online platform for pornography, with over two billion monthly users according to the American tech magazine Wired. The Norwegian Directorate of Health states that they have spent some 75,000 NOK [~7,360 USD] on the Pornhub ads, which will begin showing this week and will last for one month as a pilot to “test the waters” of further advertising on the platform.

—“In order to reach the target audience, we need to think outside the box and try new things. It is important for us to prevent child sexual abuse,” Sjøly says to VG.

—“Thoughts alone increase the risk”

Martin Sjøly is a specialist psychologist in the Norwegian Directorate of Health who works with the service “Det Finnes Hjelp” among other things.

—“A big share of people who have sexual thoughts about children leave these thoughts only as thoughts, and do not act on them. At the same time, though, the thoughts alone increase the risk of sexually abusing children.”

Sjøly claims that, compared with other ad campaigns, that the Norwegian Directorate of Health’s Pornhub ads can speak more directly to the share of those struggling with sexual thoughts about children who are perhaps more ambivalent about asking for help.

“Preetens” [sic] and “barely legal”

The ads are aimed at specific search terms^[1] on Pornhub, such as “teens”, “preteens”, and “barely legal”.

—“Which is to say that those who search for these terms on Pornhub will see our ads,” Sjøly says.

Sjøly says that although Pornhub has been in the spotlight due to accusations of harboring illegal content, including content tied to child sexual abuse material, that the site still says in their own guidelines that they operate within the confines of what constitutes legal pornography for adults.

—“If you aren’t running ads on the illegal content itself, will you still reach the intended audience?”

—“This is still new for us, so we don’t know yet. But if we were to discuss running ads on illegal child sexual abuse material on the dark web, then that would bring a completely different set of issues and legal questions. On Pornhub, we’ve used experience and knowledge gained from similar campaigns in other countries, such as Canada and the UK, where ads on Pornhub have been demonstrated to increase the number of people seeking help from the respective health authorities’ support systems.”

—“Some people will react negatively”

Sjøly affirms that the decision to run an ad campaign on Pornhub was carefully considered, as were the details of the campaign. Nevertheless, the Norwegian Directorate of Health states that they are prepared to meet strong negative reactions from members of the public, concerning the Pornhub ad campaign.

—“We have to respect that people have different opinions, and we have to acknowledge that the porn industry has been heavily stigmatized. Given that this ad campaign was paid for by taxpayers, we can be pretty certain that a number of people won’t take it well that the Norwegian Directorate of Health wants to run ads on a platform like Pornhub. A number of people will probably also react negatively to us helping the group in question, or say that we should spend more resources on helping the victims of sexual abuse. But we can still decrease the number of sexual abuse victims in the first place, by working with the people who have thoughts of sexual abuse that they might eventually act on.”

Up to 100,000 potential

—“Do we know how many people struggle with sexual thoughts about children?”

—“We don’t have specific numbers for Norway, but based on international research and the size of Norway’s population overall, we could estimate up to 100,000 men over the age of 18 and 30,000 women over the age of 18. Most of the ones being treated in our country are ethnic Norwegian men between 20 and 39 years of age; very few women ask for help.”

“Det Finnes Hjelp” does not provide help for persons convicted of sexual crimes, or currently under investigation for sexual crimes.

—“We distinguish target demographics in that way; there are separate services for persons who have already committed child sexual abuse or are otherwise convicted of sexual crimes.”

—“Is enough being done?”

“That’s why we’re trying different things to see if we can reach more people. Regional health authorities have also established local support systems, and Norway’s health authorities are cooperating with the National Criminal Investigation Service (Kripos) and the national justice system at large to take down illegal content that sexualizes children.”