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Joshua Center
on Child Sexual Abuse Prevention
Protecting Youth from Sexual Abuse

As a caregiver, you know well that there are many contexts and situations where you cannot have direct oversight of your child. As discussed in Recognizing Risks for CSA, there are many different types of people – including youth themselves – that abuse children, and there are many contexts in which children are at risk for abuse. The best way to protect your youth from sexual abuse is to be aware of the complex risks that youth face so that you can move to manage those risks.

Being aware of risk can help you to protect youth by moving to manage those risks. 

This starts with assessing the safety of a given person or environment that your child may be around. 

In this section, we will cover:

Assessing Youth-Serving Organizations

When selecting a school, organization, or program for your child – generally referred to as youth-serving organizations (YSOs) – there are concrete indicators to assess the program’s ability to protect children from child sexual abuse (CSA). 

Some questions to ask a prospective organization or program include:

  • Do they have child protection policies?
  • How do they follow and enforce these policies? 
  • Do they talk openly about sexual abuse, boundaries, and CSA prevention?
  • How do they monitor staff and other children?
  • Are you able to drop in to the program without an appointment?
  • Are there areas in the building where observation is blocked?

If the answer to any of these questions is no, or you feel unsure, you may wish to explore other options prior to entrusting your child in the organization’s care. Organizations should not only have policies to protect youth, but should enforce these policies and be prepared to engage in conversation about how they protect youth from CSA and other forms of abuse. 

Organizations should have and enforce child protection policies.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has identified six key components of CSA prevention within youth-serving organizations (YSOs):1 

  1. Screening and selecting employees and volunteers 
  2. Having guidelines on interactions between individuals
  3. Monitoring behavior
  4. Ensuring safe environments
  5. Responding to inappropriate behavior, breaches in policy, and allegations and suspicions of child sexual abuse
  6. Providing training about child sexual abuse prevention

1. Is CSA prevention integrated into organizational processes for screening and selecting employees and volunteers?

Strategies for screening and selection include educating prospective candidates about organizational child protection policies and procedures, child safety-focused written applications, personal interviews, and reference checks. As criminal background checks only reveal cases that have been reported and confirmed, relying on background checks alone is not adequate as a prevention strategy.

2. Does the YSO have guidelines on interactions between individuals? 

Behavioral guidelines help organizations define positive, appropriate interactions as well as inappropriate and harmful behavior. Specific strategies depend on the nature of the organization but examples include maintaining ratios of staff/volunteers to youth and policies that limit or oversee one-on-one interactions between staff/volunteers and youth. Policies should also address risk between youth, especially in situations where youth may have the opportunity to sexually or physically abuse other youth. The YSO should have policies to address sexual abuse and bullying to encourage appropriate behavior and identify risks for abuse. 

3. How does the YSO monitor behavior?

Beyond developing behavioral guidelines, YSOs must have and implement strategies to enforce these guidelines by monitoring interactions both between staff/volunteers and youth and among youth. The YSO should also assess for potential risk situations to ensure youth safety.
 
All staff/volunteers should be tasked with continuously monitoring behaviors and interactions within the organization. Specific strategies include:

  • Explicit expectations and training for staff/volunteers regarding monitoring 
  • A clear reporting structure so staff/volunteers know who to contact if they observe any potentially harmful or inappropriate behavior 
  • Regular supervision of staff/volunteers 
  • Documentation of monitoring practices

4. What does the YSO do to ensure a safe environment for youth?

While environmental strategies depend on the organization, the YSO should be taking into consideration the physical safety of youth. Policies include: 

  • Increasing visibility of all areas where programming takes place
  • Ensuring privacy of youth while toileting, showering, or changing clothes
  • Knowing where youth are at all times
  • Controlling who is allowed on program premises and excursions

5. What is the YSO’s response to inappropriate behavior, breaches in policy, and allegations and suspicions of child sexual abuse?

While the goal of prevention efforts is to prevent abuse before it occurs, it is also necessary for organizations to have policies and procedures in place in the event of harmful or inappropriate behavior, violations of policy, or sexual abuse if it occurs. YSOs should have a clear reporting process for sexual abuse, including who must report abuse, to whom, and when to make a report. There should also be a well-known and documented process for how reports of abuse are managed and responded to, and by whom.

6. Does the YSO provide training about child sexual abuse prevention?

A critical component of prevention is educating staff/volunteers, youth, and caregivers about CSA, safety, and prevention. YSOs should be providing training to staff/volunteers on: 

  • Safe spaces
  • Organizational child protection policies
  • Child sexual abuse information and the importance of prevention
  • Personal conduct
  • Positive development of youth and protective factors 
  • How to handle disclosures

Organizations may also provide training to caregivers on CSA, including organizational child safety policies and caregivers’ unique role in preventing CSA. Training for youth may cover developmentally appropriate safety education, child sexual abuse information, and protective factors. 

Asking YSOs directly about these policies and practices will give you a sense of the organization’s approach to CSA prevention (or lack thereof). Readiness and willingness to engage in conversation with you about CSA prevention will indicate a culture of prevention within the organization, as well as a commitment to protecting youth.

Organizations should be ready and willing to engage with you in conversation about CSA prevention.

 This section has been adapted from Preventing Child Sexual Abuse Within Youth-Serving Organizations: Getting Started on Policies and Procedures (PDF).

For more information about prevention in YSOs, see:

Cyber Safety for Children Under 13

Teaching children internet safety is a critical component of sexual abuse prevention. Showing an interest and participating in your child’s internet use can demonstrate that you care and provide children with the tools they need to be smart users of the internet. From an early age, you can select games and apps together so that you are in the know about their internet use. You may also choose to restrict certain functions of applications when possible, such as turning off the ability to communicate with other users of the app. Checking in on a daily basis about internet use, just like you would about a school day, can normalize these discussions so that youth know that you are invested and concerned about their well-being. 

Checking in on a daily basis about internet use can show your youth that you are invested and concerned about their well-being. 

To promote child safety on the internet, adults can:

  • Advise children to not disseminate personal information (such as name, home address, phone number, etc.) online
  • Ask children regularly about their online experiences, including the people they are meeting, and educate yourself about the websites and apps they use
  • Talk about boundaries on the internet, and let children know that they can always say “no” to someone on the internet if they feel uncomfortable
  • Around age 5 or 6, you can explain that there are people on the internet who want to harm children, and that they often use fake names and profile pictures
  • Tell children to not post or send nude or sexual photos or videos of themselves because those images can be distributed without their permission, even if they delete them themselves
  • Teach children that some people online pretend to be their age but are not, and may have bad intentions
  • Alert children that pornography may seem interesting at first but can actually be harmful by leading them to develop negative thoughts and behaviors (see Pornography and Sexual Violence) 

Cyber Safety for Teenagers

Online risks continue for youth into their teenage years as their sexuality is developing, and it is important to continue to check in with children about online activity on a regular basis. Be sure to ask open-ended questions that will hopefully invite a response and continue to show interest, even if they are reticent about sharing much. Opening this line of communication can help if any uncomfortable situations ever arise. 

To continue conversations on cyber safety, adults can: 

  • Remind teenagers that they can always say “no” if they find themselves in an uncomfortable situation online
  • Teach teens that they should not need to send pictures, use webcams, or share personal information online with people they do not know
  • Inform teens know that sexually explicit messages (often referred to as “sexts”) can be distributed beyond the intended recipient, and can be used for coercion (or “sexploitation”) even if they are sent to someone the teen trusts
  • Discuss sexual abuse, boundaries, and the violation of set boundaries even if it feels difficult or embarrassing
  • Establish a support system of other caring adults that the teen can talk to so they have options

For more information on cyber safety, see:

  • Staying Safe While Staying Connected (PDF) - Provides information to parents and caregivers about keeping children safe online and offers tips for keeping youth safe when they are online, including privacy settings and protecting their identity.

Other Child Protection Strategies

Protecting your child from CSA on a daily basis requires an ongoing effort to monitor your child’s interactions and circumstances.

Frequently asked questions include:

How do you protect your child when your child is away from you?

  • Unannounced visits to where they are
  • Talking to the child about their day

How do you know if another adult is safe? 

  • In short, you can’t. Therefore, it is always important to talk to children about other caregivers, relatives, acquaintances, and other adults in the youth’s life.  

What does my child need to know to stay safe from abuse?

  • One component of CSA prevention is equipping youth with the knowledge they need to understand and protect themselves from abuse. To access our prevention materials for youth on CSA and personal safety, see [Resources / For Youth / Article Series]. 
  • For more information about talking to your child about CSA, see Talking to Youth About Child Sexual Abuse

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