As we’ve seen over the previous five BITSS articles on Body ownership, Intuition, Touch, Say no and Support networks, there are endless ways to include BITSS activities and games as part of your child’s everyday life. The suggestions provided were an entree to get you thinking and playing protectively.
Stay curious, create different activities, seek out more information or think about getting a few resources from sexual assault centers or other places that deal with child sexual abuse. There are also some great computer games that children can play to help them learn about personal safety. Hold a protective behaviors party in your home for your group of support people/friends. Play some of the games suggested in the previous blogs. Spread the protective word to other parents. Most importantly, make BITSS every day play practice in your home to maximize child protection and TELL the police if any child discloses sexual abuse to you.
If the sexual abuse statistics of up to one in three children are correct then that also means that two out of three are not abused. As a collective group of parents, let’s move our children to the book club of the two who aren’t hurt. The more safe books in the book club means that the one in three figure has to improve in the future.
Let’s write a new book that tells predators that their game is over. As a families.com community, we’re watching, we’re telling and we’re taking the control back. As the incidence statistic goes up (people reporting child sexual abuse at the time it happens), it is my dream that the prevalence statistic (adults disclosing through survey that they were abused as children) will go down. Perpetrators will have the book thrown at them. They will read that our children will tell, that we will back our children up and that predators had better think twice about sexually abusing our children.
Finally, please remember, if your child is sexually abused it is never their fault. It is ALWAYS the responsibility of the perpetrator. Frequently parents have no idea that abuse is happening. That is not the parents fault. Remember that perpetrators groom adults as well. Break this vicious cycle of grooming and perpetration by telling the authorities if your child tells you someone has abused them. It is not our job to investigate and prove. That belongs to Police and Child Welfare bodies. It is our job as parents to believe, report and to support our children.
Have you ever reported any sort of child harm? What was your experience of trying to help a child?