For the last few years, Darkness to Light has had the honor of partnering with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse for Envision. This past June, we were able to be together in person in Washington, D.C. to discuss “The Future of Child Sexual Abuse Prevention.”
Advocates, practitioners, researchers, survivors, authors, and others in the field came together over the two days to look at a wealth of information from around the world. There were, however, a few important takeaways that we wanted to be able to share with those of you who were unable to attend in person or virtually.
- Practically, we should also be focused on bystander interventions. How can we empower bystanders to speak up on behalf of a child? To make a choice to protect children and then to take a risk to minimize danger to children.
- What we are teaching adults about preventing child sexual abuse for their in-person interactions with children can and do work in online settings as well.
- Online abuse is also NOT stranger danger. Many instances of online child sexual abuse and enticement are happening between children and people they know (peers, people they or their family know and trust).
- We need to be focused on peer-on-peer abuse. What prevention and interventions would work in these situations?
- There is a notable decline in some instances of child sexual abuse from youth-serving organizations.
- And a final observation: there are more and more people dedicating their lives to the prevention of child sexual abuse in a variety of ways, and it is happening in a collaborative and community-focused way.