Did you know the FBI—in partnership with Homeland Security Investigations and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children—recently issued a national public safety alert regarding sextortion schemes? I had no idea all this was going down until I listened to this episode on my friend, Nicole Bromley’s, podcast last week. Wait, do you even know what
Why disclose sexual abuse? FYI: The average age of an individual who discloses sexual abuse is 52. And that’s if they disclose at all. According to the child safety organization, Darkness to Light, 60% of child sexual abuse victims never tell anyone. So why don’t the 60% disclose? In this blog post, I shared a
Healing from child sex abuse (aka CSA) is serious business. But before we even start the conversation about healing, let’s look at some statistics. CSA happens to girls, and it happens to boys. In fact, current statistics report that in the US, 1 in 10 kids will be sexually abused before their 18th birthday. As a result,
Here to talk to you about hope after sexual abuse is victim advocate, Melanie Sachs. Trigger Warning: This post includes a description of sexual abuse. Hope is a word we often see or hear in many different contexts. What this word means to me goes beyond the definition you may find when you Google it,
What do you know about online safety for kids? Guest Post by Moe McClanahan…Director of Training & Education at the Safe Surfin’ Foundation It’s important for parents to stay in control of their child’s Internet usage to prevent online victimization. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) is reporting a 97.5% increase in online enticement
Today a second-grade teacher in Monongalia County, West Virginia, messaged me about a body safety education presentation in her classroom. What a thrill to hear how my newly-published children’s book, The Brave Knight, “performed” in a class-room setting! Here’s her “book-report.” Each year in West Virginia schools, a body safety education lesson is presented in all
Do you know what grooming is? In the skeevy, underbelly, predatory sense of the word? During body safety assemblies when I talk to school kids about grooming, I say, “I’m not talking about brushing your Golden Retriever’s fur.” To me, Grooming is the process by which a sexual predator gains the trust of a potential victim and
In my effort to gain more expertise in the area of child safety, I recently went through two trainings from the national organization, Darkness to Light. Darkness to Light is a non-profit committed to empowering adults to prevent child sexual abuse. The first training was the 30-minute program, “Protecting Children During a Crisis,” created with
My first book ever—a children’s book—is here! At the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, the founder of the nonprofit Shield Task Force asked a favor. “Will you please write a children’s book, that in a non-threatening way, shows kids what “grooming” is? “Grooming” is the process by which a sexual predator gains the trust of
As a body safety educator in the state of West Virginia, my job is keeping kids safe. From situations like sexual abuse, bullying, neglect, and more. So far this year, I’ve taught 1,800 K-8th graders how to stop the bad guys (or gals) in their lives. The keeping kids safe process can be distilled down
