Tips To Protect Your Children Online — Child Abuse Prevention Month
April is child abuse prevention month and after over a year of COVID- 19, we need to remain ever more vigilant about keeping the children in our community safe from child sexual abuse. Before COVID-19, we estimated that by the time a child in the United States reached their 18th birthday, 1 in 10 children will be sexually abused, 1 in seven girls and 1 in 25 boys (Townsend, C., & Rheingold, A.A., (2013). Estimating a child sexual abuse prevalence rate for practitioners: studies. Charleston, S.C., Darkness to Light. Retrieved from www.D2L.org).
These are the reported cases but many survivors of child sexual abuse do not disclose in childhood or adulthood. And what is most troubling is that over 70% of survivors of child sexual abuse knew their offenders and so abuse is perpetrated by a person the child knows, loves, and/or considers a trusted adult. Offenders are not the stranger danger that we often teach our children to be wary of but the people we have actively brought into their lives.
COVID-19 has also made the world scarier for our children. The responsible adults in our children’s lives, their teachers, coaches, guidance counselors have been stymied by COVID 19. As more of our children attended school remotely, the eyes on them have dimmed. The number of abuse cases reported to the Administration of Children Services or police has decreased but the number of minors’ calls to helplines has increased, the severity of violence against children has increased and our children are missing from class.
Additionally, our children have spent more time online and their risk for online exploitation has increased as offenders are also home. However, prevention is possible, here is an acronym that you might find helpful when monitoring your children’s behavior online.
T- Try out the apps your kids are using
I- Identify good digital habits
M- Make daily check-ins a regular part of your day
E- Encourage phone and computer free conversation
Take TIME to talk with your children about what they are doing on and offline.
For more resources, please visit www.childhood-usa.org/resources
