Online Exploitation Myths

There are many common misconceptions regarding online exploitation of children.

Child sexual exploitation is rare & doesn't happen where we live.

Online child exploitation is common-place and hides in plain sight. According to NCMEC, the best data suggests at least 100,000 American children a year are victimized through child sexual exploitation (more than the number of people that die from car accidents & illegal drugs combined in America).

Child sexual exploitation only happens to girls & young women.

Anyone can be a victim of sexual exploitation. In 2000, United States Department of Justice (USDOJ) found that 26% of victims under the age of 12 were male.

Child sexual abuse only happens in some parts of society.

Children are naive and offenders use this fact to exploit children. The Department of Health & Human Services notes that child sexual abuse can occur in any segment of the population.

Online child sexual exploitation only happens to older children.

According to the USDOJ, 20% of children who are sexually abused were abused before the age of 8-years-old. Additionally, various scholarly studies have found that the average age of reported abuse is 9-years-old. [Ex: Putnam, F. (2003). Ten-year research update review: Child sexual abuse. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 42 , 269-278.]

Online child exploitation takes only one form.

There are a number of ways that exploitation can occur, including but not limited to unknown individual offenders or groups of offenders contacting children, peer-to-peer exploitation, known offenders contacting children, and abuse of authority by a known authority figure.

This can't happen to my child. My child knows how to be safe online.

According to NCMEC, 34% of children ages 10 to 17 have received unwanted exposure to sexual material and 1 in 25 children ages 10 to 17 received an online sexual solicitation where the solicitor tried to make offline contact. Also, 63% of teens said they know how to hide what they do online from their parents.

Children and young people can consent to their own exploitation.

A child under the age of 18-years-old cannot consent to sexual exploitation and is a victim, not a willing participant, in exploitation. In Illinois, a child who is exploited online will be treated as a victim.

Child pornography is just pictures or videos. It's really not a big deal.

Every image or video of child sexual assault material (CSAM), commonly referred to as child pornography, is a graphic record of an actual child being physically molested, abused, and/or assaulted. A real child is depicted in each image/video and that child was actually victimized.

Viewing child pornography, while taboo, is not a risk factor for hands on abuse.

Viewing child pornography normalizes & legitimizes sexual contact with children, making hands on offenses more likely. According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, 67% of offenders convicted solely of internet crimes admitted to contact sex crimes, with an average of 31 victims each.

#10

The online applications that my kids use are safe.

Offenders can use a variety of tools to hide their identity, location, age, & other information to carry out exploitation. Additionally, the internet has no borders. Offenders can contact children here in the United States from anywhere in the world making prosecution of those individuals extremely challenging.

Hands On Sexual Abuse Myths

There are many common misconceptions regarding hands on sexual abuse of children.

Child sexual abuse is typically carried out by a stranger.

The National Children Advocacy Center reports that 90% of offenders are known to the child victim.

Only men sexually abuse children.

According to the National Children's Advocacy Center, while males make up the majority of offenders, multiple scholarly studies have shown that approximately 20% of child sexual abuse offenders are female.

If a child is sexually abused, there will be medical evidence of the abuse.

According to the National Children's Advocacy Center, medical evidence is found is less than 5% of substantiated child sexual abuse investigations.

A child will typically tell an adult if they are a victim of sexual abuse.

According to the National Children's Advocacy Center and multiple scholarly studies, the majority of children either delay disclosure or never disclose sexual abuse.

Child sexual abuse only occurs in certain segments of the population.

While research from the Centers for Disease Control shows that child physical abuse and neglect may have some links to socioeconomic status, child sexual abuse does not. The Department of Health and Human Services notes that child sexual abuse can occur in any segment of the population.

A disabled child is less likely to be a victim of child sexual abuse.

Multiple studies cited by the National Children's Advocacy Center suggests that a child with a disability is 2 to 3 times more likely to be a victim of child sexual abuse.

Offenders typically only target one child.

The Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers found that the average number of victims for non-incestuous pedophiles who molest girls is 20, and for pedophiles who prefer boys that number jumps to 100. An average male serial child molester may have as many as 400 victims in his lifetime.

Most child sexual abusers use force to gain compliance from their victims.

According to the State of California Department of Justice, in the majority of cases, abusers gain access to their victims through deception & enticement, seldom using force. Abuse typically occurs within a long-term, ongoing relationship between the offender & victim and escalates over time along with a process called grooming.

Child sexual abusers are not capable of age-appropriate relationships.

According to the State of California Department of Justice, while there is a small subset of child sexual abusers who are exclusively attracted to children, the majority of the individuals who sexually abuse children are or have previously been attracted to adults and may maintain an adult relationship while still abusing children.

#10

If a child delays disclosure, they must be lying.

According to the State of California Department of Justice and National Children's Advocacy Center, it is common for victims of sexual assault to wait some time before telling someone. When the person was assaulted as a child, he or she may wait years or decades. The reasons for this are numerous: for example, victims may want to deny the fact that someone they trusted could do this to them, they may want to just put it behind them, they may believe the myth that they caused the assault by their behavior, they may fear how other people will react to the truth, or there may be other factors delaying disclosure.