Everyone is getting het up at the idea of age appropriate sex education for younger children in order to protect children from ‘sexual predators’,. I hate to say this, but the lion’s share of children who are abused suffer at the hands of people whom they know and should be able to trust=90% of children under 12 who are raped know their attacker, according to Child Help.
3 million cases of child abused in all its forms are reported each year, out of a total US population of approx 400 million people, and they say that they believe abuse is underreported and might actually be as much as 3x greater, or 9 million cases. About 9% of all cases relate to sexual abuse as of the 2006 statistics.
When I was living in the UK and Ireland, in conjunction with the police, doing outreach in schools and communities, I taught ‘stranger danger’ to a variety of younger children, which focused on inappropriate requests and touching.
It is only by a child developing a sense of self and personal likes and dislikes that they can stand up to an adult who might try to take advantage of them. Asking for ‘respect for one’s space, and listening to their instincts if they feel something is ‘wrong’ does not need to be sexually explicit.
It also included not just strangers, but other people in their lives that they might have felt uncomfortable around.
The parents were taught along with the children to help reinforce the message.
In the UK, there are less than 35,000 abuse cases reported, out of a total population of approx 60 million. In terms of sexual abuse, versus neglect or physical abuse such as hitting, there are only about 2,000 sexual abuse cases reported.
So clearly there are some serious problems in the US that need to be addressed.
It is more important to protect the children, than the sensibilities of squeamish adults. It is certainly not a subject that anyone should be trying to make political capital out of.
