I was plugging along in my own merry way as I normally do with two computers open, a desktop and a laptop side by side, flipping from one to the other at rapid speed (I type 95 wpm) going from one website to another, answering emails, checking Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo and LinkedIn along with my Web Mail which had now increased to over 600 still unanswered emails, most of which I just needed to delete, when a Google Alert caught my eye. It was about a teacher who had been charged with sexual abuse. It turned out to be an article by Dreamcatchers for Abused Children, a non profit child abuse organization dedicated to educating the public on child abuse. When I clicked on the site my brain did a flip-flop as I saw the following stats:
As per Dreamcatchers for Abused Children, child abuse has increased 34% since 1980.
As per YesICan, at http://www.yesican.org/stats.html
“Child abuse reports have maintained a steady growth for the past ten years, with the total number of reports nationwide increasing 45% since 1987 (Nation Committee for the Prevention of Child Abuse (NCPCA) 2000 Annual Fifty State Survey).
The estimated number of sexually abused children increased 83%.
These stats are for the United States alone. Multiply that by the many countries around the world that have an even worse problem with child abuse. Add to that the sex trafficking trade that has flourished the last several years.
A sort of cold rage coupled with anxiety and fear flooded over me. How can this be? I knew child sexual abuse numbers had increased. Even the frequently reported: “There are 60 million child sexual abuse survivors in the United States alone” was just reported cases and as such was not an accurate number. The number of websites, bloggers, non profits and Facebook pages addressing this problem had increased in the few years I’d been working with Lamplighters to such an extent that I lost track of most of them, bookmarking the majors and hoping I’d meet up with the rest at some point when I wasn’t carrying multi-tasking to a new art form. The whole damn business didn’t make any sense. How could you have so many people working on the same problem, worldwide, and have not only no improvement but an increase!
Today we live in a world where everyone who has been sexually abused wants to tell their story. Once they do that they want to start a blog or create a website. After that they become intent on writing a book on what happened to them, convinced that their story will be a best seller and will get a handle on this enormous problem.
If you Google “child sexual abuse” an avalanche of different websites and non- profits will pile out. Here’s a few samples from the Virtual Global Taskforce (VGT):
August 18, 2011
The ThinkUKnow initiative aims to educate children, parents, carers and teachers about the risks faced online and how to create a safer online experience for young people.
September 1, 2011
An innovative development in the world’s fight to eradicate commercial child pornography: In 2006, the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (ICMEC), a US-based Non Government Organisation, together with…..
September 8, 2011
The Virtual Global Taskforce (VGT), one of the world’s largest international child protection taskforces, met at the INTERPOL General Secretariat headquarters in Lyon, France this week to explore new techniques ……
July 1, 2011
As Chair of the Virtual Global Taskforce (VGT), the AFP has helped develop an international network of psychologists working closely with people dealing with online child sexual exploitation operations. The [more…]
There’s more from our friend Google, so much more that it is dizzying.
Every state seems to have their own way of combating this problem. Here’s a sample:
State of Alaska | Children’s Justice Act Task Force
www.hss.state.ak.us › Office Of Children’s Services
Guidelines for the Multidisciplinary Response to Child Abuse in Alaska A project of the Alaska Children’s Justice Act Task Force intended to assist the … Identify areas where improvement is needed in the statewide response to child maltreatment particularly child sexual abuse, … www.state.ak.us/courts/shcvideo.htm#dv …
Every child who is found sexually assaulted and murdered sets off another flurry of petitions to the government to pass another law, this time with the child’s name on it. It’s all making me dizzy. There are even many non profit organizations that are trying to get a one world alliance started. I thought that was the key until I saw how many there were. Still no difference.
What is wrong with this picture? How can we have so many people working on this problem and see only an increase in the numbers as a result? I plan on more researching to find the answer to my question. To not find an answer is too morally wrong, brings too much negative emotion into our being. I will report back to my readers next week when hopefully I’ll have some answers.
