Tag: Assault

Alarming number of children sexually abusing other children, study shows

Peer-on-peer abuse is often undetected by parents, who assumed their kids are safe around other kids.

The national survey commissioned by Act for Kids revealed a staggering 24% of child abuse cases involve another child.

It also showed peer-on-peer abuse was often undetected by parents, who assumed their kids are safe around other kids.

Act for Kids released the research ahead of Child Protection Week (September 1-7) to urge parents to take the necessary steps to protect their children online and learn more about the warning signs of problematic sexual behaviors.

The survey of 2,000 people living in Australia revealed, while three quarters blame access to adult content for problematic behaviours, two-thirds of parents still fail to secure their devices and one in two allow their children unsupervised access online.

While there are a number of places children might learn problematic behaviors, easy access to age-inappropriate content is a major factor in influencing these young minds.

Act for Kids program manager Miranda Bain said the survey findings were both surprising and scary,

“There is a lack of knowledge amongst parents of what constitutes problematic sexual behaviours in children and how these behaviors have the potential to lead to more harmful peer-on-peer abuse,” Ms Bain said.

“While there are a number of places children might learn problematic behaviors, easy access to age-inappropriate content is a major factor in influencing these young minds.”

Act for Kids Executive Services Director and Psychologist, Dr. Katrina Lines said, it was vital parents take the necessary steps to protect their children online and learn more about the warning signs of problematic sexual behaviors.

Dr. Lines explains, “Some steps parents can take to protect their kids is making sure they understand normal child sexual development and curiosity and share accurate facts and information about sexuality with their children,”

Source: www.illawarramercury.com.au/story/6361787/alarming-number-of-children-sexually-abusing-other-children-study-shows/

What Is Sextortion?

According to the FBI, sextortion cases are up 60 percent in the last five years.

It can happen in a matter of minutes, but the trauma can stay with victims forever.

Unlike cyberbullying, which most parents know about and discuss with their teens, sextortion isn’t on a lot of parents’ radars, leaving kids unguarded and vulnerable to attacks.

Read more…

A Second Thought About Slumber Parties

As parents we want to keep our children safe but it’s impossible to watch over them 24/7. Where do we draw the line between good-parenting and outright paranoia?

Let’s chat about the innocent slumber party… the one night parents finally get a break!

When my daughter hit the 3rd grade she had a new-found interest in sleepovers.  She was more than ready to take a break from her older brother and spread her social-butterfly wings.  I had my apprehensions but didn’t want to rain on her little parade.

It can be a delicate task explaining to a 3rd grader why they can’t participate in something everyone else seems to be doing. It felt like saying “no” would make her an outcast amongst the school’s “inner circle”.

Despite my reservations, I allowed her to participate in two sleepovers that year. After the second one (which included 13 girls), she and I both knew accepting the invite wasn’t a good decision.

Let’s just say, there was a lot of turmoil, gossip, mini-arguments and boys, yes BOYS (the birthday girl’s older brother plus his friends)!

Five reasons why I banned sleepovers:

1. Vulnerability. A sleeping child is in their most vulnerable state. Some children are naturally hard sleepers and if anyone wanted to harm them, they’d be an easy target.

2. Sedatives. We’ve all heard of parents giving a child cough syrup or other sedatives for them to fall asleep faster and/or stay asleep longer. It happens.

Same thing with adults. If it makes sense for grown-ups to be cautious of someone slipping something into their drink, wouldn’t it makes more sense to prepare children for the same possibility.

It’s unfortunate to have to prepare a child for something so sinister, but children are naturally unsuspecting. We may as well add this to the life-skill training right along with active-shooter preparedness.

3. Just how well do you know the family? We get the sleepover invite and initially have no reservations. But take a pause to think about how well you really know everyone who lives in the home.

We know the mom, but how familiar are we with dad, siblings and anyone else living in the home. Hi and bye at school functions doesn’t count.

When it comes to abuse, the adult-male in the home shouldn’t automatically be the prime suspect. Is sibling sexual abuse on your radar?

Social Work Today sites sibling abuse as the least recognized form of abuse, while sexual abuse by related adults in a family receives the most attention.

Also consider… Is it a single-parent home? Who visits at night? Is there drug or alcohol use? Will the kids have access to it? What about weapons?

4. Can’t judge a book by its cover. Don’t be naïve.

A pedophile can be very kind and have a conservative, clean-cut appearance.  Draw a mental picture of a Catholic Priest, Coach, Scout Leader, Sunday School Teacher or friendly neighbor, they rarely look creepy.  

We’ve always put so much focus on protecting our daughters from pedophiles, but all along, our sons have been in an equal amount of danger.

Without completely “sheltering” our children and painting the world as all rainbows and roses, serious discussions regarding abuse require more than just one conversation.

5. Finding a way to make it real. Young children need to understand that sexual assault isn’t just something that happened “in the old days” or something that happens to “other people”.

The Truth…

Healing from gossip and petty girl-fights is much easier to deal with than the life-long psychological damage of sexual assault.

Source, modified: ** https://www.socialworktoday.com/archive/111312p18.shtml