Children who have themselves been sexually abused say pre-schoolers should be taught about abuse just as they are taught to cross the road.
| From a very young age children need to know how to say no and how to tell. |
Talk about abuse. Thats the message to adults from teenagers who have been sexually abused.
I didnt know what to call what was happening to me until I was 11. Id never heard anything about sexual abuse, explains Cathy, now 18, who was abused by her step-father between the ages of six and 13. It was too hard to talk about it because nobody wants to hear about it. I used to watch the news and hear all this stuff about people getting murdered and raped, but I never heard anything about sexual abuse.
Leanne, 18, believes adults reticence prevents children from being able to protect themselves. Her father habitually abused her from an early age. But it was only when playground talk turned to boys and sex that she realised what was wrong. When I was really young, me dad said over and over that I wouldn't get pregnant. When I was 12, friends at school talked about things like that and it started eating me that this shouldn't be going on, that other people weren't going through this.
Recent campaigns may have raised the profile of abuse, but they have largely been directed at adults. Rachel, now 19, was repeatedly abused by her uncle between the ages of six and nine and 12 and 15. She urges adults to pass on what they know. From a very young age children need to know how to say no and how to tell, she says. They need to know they shouldnt be scared and that somebody is there for them, that somebody will take it seriously.
Names have been changed. This work was supported by the NSPCC.
About the team
By Salomey Ainoo, 18, Rachel Bulford, 18, Oliver Robertson, 17, Aminah Carter, 16, Natasha Asare, 16, Jiselle Steele, 15, Carlene Thomas-Bailey, 15, Kierra Box, 14, and Sinead Kirwan, 14, and Benjamina Avro, 12. It was published in Local Government Voice Solo.
