It
seems that child sexual abuse is a new topic but I can assure you from personal
experience it is not. Luckily I was not a victim of sexual abuse as a young
child. However, I lived in a very poor community and was aware of children
abusing one another and people who were older abusing them. In many cases it is
a case of experimentation but in many other cases it is an overt sexual attack,
for example an older brother on a younger sister.
These
are situations where a child has no protection from sexual abuse. If you think
in terms of it being an uncle or father or even a mother the circumstances
become even more difficult. That is what makes it so hard to explain sexual
abuse to a child; the fact that it could be someone the child has trusted and
not the serial killer we are all fearful of and on the lookout for, but rather
the brother or the cousin that performs an act that scars the child.
How do we let our children know about the potential dangers of
sexual abuse?
First of all we must understand we cannot protect them 100 percent
of the time, they are vulnerable. Further, there is no child of any race or
socio-economic situation that is safe. However most people would agree I think
that there would be a direct relationship to there being a history of sexual
abuse in the family as an increased risk.
We must let our children know what sexual abuse is without giving
them too much information; that is the hard part. One way to approach the
situation is letting them know about "good and bad touches." Also, it
is important that we make ourselves comfortable with the subject of sexual
abuse so our children are comfortable coming to us; when we are comfortable
with the subject of sexual abuse that alone takes a little fear out of the
subject. It is our job, when we can, to see they are supervised "visually
from a distance."
There are books and other materials about sexual abuse we can use
to help teach them. Further the internet provides plenty of helpful
information. It comes back to staying away from strangers on the outside and
being aware of people inside the family. If I were to say what I think is the
biggest threat to children regarding sexual abuse, from my personal experience,
I think the biggest threat comes of sexual abuse from someone in the family. As
I said previously it is not always an overt sexual act rather experimentation
but it leaves the same scars.
Children must be armed with the knowledge of what is a good act
and a bad act and we must leave the line of communication open so they can come
to us at any time.
They only have one childhood.
Gary Davis,
Yahoo Contributor Network
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