Children are being targeted by predators both in person and online.
Research has shown that it:
- 1 out of every 3 girls will be sexually abused before the age of 18.
- 1 out of every 7 boys will be sexually abused before the age of 18.
- In 90% of these cases, the predator is someone the family knows.
- In 30% of these cases, it is a family member.
In addition, online abuse has skyrocketed.
According to the National Center for Missing and Abused Children, they received 32 million reports to their CyberTipline in 2022.
- Sadly, the majority of explicit child sexual material is created by people with legitimate access to children, like parents, uncles, neighbors and family friends. 2/3 of the victims are abused by someone they know.
- It is estimated that 1 in 6 minors aged between 9-17 years old have shared their own sexual content.
- 1 in 4 children see this as normal behavior.
- 1 in 5, 9-12 shared that they had some type of sexual interaction with someone they believed to be over the age of 18.
- According to a survey of sextortion survivors, 1 in 4 participants stated that they were 13 or younger when sextorted.
At Talk About Safety, we provide free seminars to children and teens. We educate them on the dangers they face and best practices to avoid them. We also have conversations with parents to provide tools to help them keep their children safer as well as the resources to deal with suspected abuse,