Preventing, Recognizing, and Reacting Responsibly to Child Sexual Abuse - A Guide for Responsible Adults


What is child sexual abuse?
• Any sexual act between an adult and a minor or between two minors when one exerts power over the other.
• Forcing, coercing or persuading a child to engage in any type of sexual act. This, of course, includes sexual contact. It also includes non-contact acts such as exhibitionism, exposure to pornography, voyeurism and communicating in a sexual manner by phone or Internet.
• An agonizing and traumatic experience for its victims.
• A crime punishable by law.

This booklet is only the beginning.
Child sexual abuse is a very complex problem, and this booklet touches on only a small part of it. The information we provide is not a substitute for the advice of professionals. It is only to give you simple, proactive steps to help protect children.

Step 1: Learn the facts
Realities—not trust—should influence your decisions regarding your child.

Step 2: Minimize Opportunity
If you eliminate or reduce one-adult/one-child situations, you’ll
dramatically lower the risk of sexual abuse for your child.

Step 3: Talk about it
Children often keep abuse a secret, but barriers can be broken down
by talking openly about it.

Step 4: Stay Alert
Don’t expect obvious signs when a child is being sexually abused.

Step 5: Make a Plan
Learn where to go, who to call and how to react.

Step 6: Act on Suspicions
The future well-being of a child is at stake.

Step 7: Get involved
Volunteer and financially support organizations that fight the tragedy
of child sexual abuse.

"My child's school has a program to teach children about sexual abuse prevention- but what about adults? Shouldn't we be responsible for the protection of children?"
A child's safety is an adult's job. Children are often taught how to keep themselves safe from sexual abuse - and that's important for them to learn - but it's no substitute for adult responsibility. We make sure children wear seat belts. We walk them across busy streets. We store toxic household cleaners out of reach. Why, then, would we leave the job of preventing child sexual abuse solely to children?

Imagine how difficult it is for a child to say "no" to a parent, a teacher, a coach, or clergy.

Even the adults we trust to protect children can't always be trusted. Coaches, teachers, clergy, and parents are authority figures children feel they can trust. Yet, a large percentage of those who sexually abuse children are from this group. These are adults who have the opportunity to "groom" children with affection and attention, making it difficult for children to identify certain behaviors as abuse. And they know that children have been taught to "mind" them. This is why programs that focus on adult responsibility are essential.

More information, please visit: http://www.darkness2light.org/7steps/7steps.asp

After moving into a new town or neighborhood, you may have the tendency to feel incomplete. If you do not know anyone in town, you end up being complete stranger, left feeling like an intimidated new kid on the first day of high school. As time progresses, residents of the neighborhood begin to open up to you, making you feel a bit more welcome. Eventually, associates at the job are more receptive. You establish a group of your own that gathers faithfully in the break room. Some of them you have even grown close to; close enough to label friends.

After a while, things begin to change. One of your friends in the circle becomes a cause for concern. Perhaps his behavior has grown erratic; he has become suddenly depressed and his actions are strange. While some may think you are overreacting, your need for worry is genuine.

By way of national and local news, we are witnessing more senseless violence on the job. More innocent victims’ lives are being claimed by co-workers, people they casually associated with on a daily basis. Once the story hits the press, we typically find that the suspect had a shaky past, one that could have been thoroughly looked into with an employee or criminal background check.

When suspicions arise, you may need to take the situation in your own hands. Checking into your friend’s prior record before getting too involved in the relationship is certainly a wise idea, especially in consideration of the times in which we live.

Contrary to popular beliefs, you do not have to be a seasoned private investigator to conduct an individual’s background check. One of the best resources to find out anything about anyone has to be the internet. On the web exists a large amount of tools to help you learn more about your new friends. In fact, the mission of finding information on anyone is performed with more efficiency on the internet than any other platform. These online searches are fast and fairly accurate. With enough of the basic information, you will be able to find out practically anything about new friends, including criminal records and even driving records!

When you are looking to find out about anyone, even strangers, the internet gives you many options. Net Detective is the most popular people search engine online. This five star ranked service is frequently used by law enforcement agencies all over the world. Anything about anyone can be accessed through criminal records, family history files, birth and death certificates, adoption records, social security numbers, telephone numbers, email domains, and much more.

There are many other great services available that allow you to find out about anyone. With in depth information, background checks, and criminal records, you can rest assured that your new friends have no dark pasts…or that if they do, you can steer clear of the danger.

When you are conducting a background check on a new friend, you certainly hope to be proven wrong about your doubts. However, it is best to remain on the safe side. By using a little web savvy, you can instantly jump online and find out about anyone who strikes you as suspicious. The tools on the internet are very effective in helping people search the past of a new friend.

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