Dunkelziffer e.V. has been campaigning since 1993 against sexual abuse and child pornography. The association helps children throughout Germany with counselling, providing legal aid (solicitors) and protective measures in schools and kindergartens. Dunkelziffer e.V. also offers training courses for adults working with children and adolescents. In the Greater Hamburg area many children have already received help in special therapy sessions. In Germany some 16,000 young girls and boys (up to the age of 14) are victims of sexual abuse every year. The estimated number of unknown cases could be up to 15 times as high.

With the Internet risks for children are for ever on the increase, so the need for help is also on the rise. The Auerbach Foundation is involved in the work of Dunkelziffer e.V. and sponsors three projects:
 
Contact point for abused boys
Studies have shown that it is often more difficult for boys to seek the help they need, which is why a contact point has been set up specifically for boys with a male counsellor (social education worker).

Advanced training courses for judges
Since most abused children have lost their trust in adults, judges dealing with these children must go about their work particularly sensitively and take an empathetic approach. Dunkelziffer e.V. offers training courses on child abuse for judges.

Child therapy
The emotional anguish and physical distress abused children suffer often last their whole life long. An empathetic therapy is there to help the children to deal with their trauma and regain trust.