Understanding how to prevent child sexual abuse begins with understanding what child sex abuse is. When parents, caregivers, treatment providers, child protection professionals and all adults in a position to protect a child keep informed about the facts related to sex abuse, then stepping up to take a protective action becomes easier and better defined.

Defining Child Sexual Abuse
If you are not exactly sure what sexual abuse is, you’re not alone. To help identify abuse, identifying behaviors that are abusive can help determine what sex abuse is. Sex abuse does include both Touching and Non-Touching Behaviors

All sexual touching between an adult and a child is sexual abuse. Sexual touching between children can also be sexual abuse when there is a significant age difference (often defined as 3 or more years) between the children or if the children are very different developmentally or size-wise. Sexual abuse does not have to involve penetration, force, pain, or even touching. If an adult engages in any sexual behavior (looking, showing, or touching) with a child to meet the adult’s interest or sexual needs, it is sexual abuse.

Another legacy of sexual abuse is that children abused at any early age often become hyper-sexualized or sexually reactive. Issues with promiscuity and poor self-esteem are unfortunately common reactions to early sexual abuse.

Substance abuse is another common outcome of sexual abuse. In fact, according to the AAETS, “specialists in the addiction field (alcohol, drugs and eating disorders) estimate that up to 90 percent of their patients have a known history of some form of abuse.”

Specific symptoms of sexual abuse

Studies have shown that children who experience sexual abuse tend to recover quicker and with better results if they have a supportive, caring adult (ideally a parent) consistently in their life.

It’s crucial for every victim of sexual abuse to seek counseling to decrease or to prevent PTSD symptoms. Since 35% of child sexual abusers were once abused (and the number is higher in males), counseling might also help to reduce the possibility of a victim repeating the abusive pattern.