In Episode 560 – Preventing Child Sexual Abuse on Johns Hopkins University’s podcast Public Health On Call, public health experts discuss some ways to prevent child sexual abuse from happening. It is important to understand that sexual abuse towards a child is often caused by perpetrators who turn out to be people children are familiar with. Sexual abuse is also a common occurrence amongst children during the adolescent stage when they may engage in impulsive behaviors.
Therefore, youth-serving organizations must ensure that adults are never alone with children during their programs. There must always be other children and adults around to ensure that contact between children and adults is easily observable and interruptible. When parents are looking into youth programs, the programs must have policies in place to detect and hold someone responsible for any occurrences of sexual abuse towards a child.
To help children learn to recognize when they are in danger, children should learn and understand the definitions of consent, harassment, peer-to-peer sexual harassment, and they should be open to disclosing any harm they have received to a trusted adult.
Listen to the full podcast here on Spotify and access the transcript below:
JHU Podcast - Preventing Child Sexual Abuse