When my oldest son was five he casually told me that a six-year-old playmate “touched me near my penis and kissed me.” I went numb because I knew this little boy had been sexually abused and now was mimicking what happened to him. I wondered would my son mimic what this boy did to him. I was a mess. I will detail below how we handled the situation, but for now consider this: According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Children's Bureau, at least 695,000 children in the United States had been sexually abused at least once in the last reporting year of 2010. Even though this number is astounding, the reported number of children being abused had dropped from the previous year. The decline in no way suggests that less abuse is happening.
Predators have become more bold and crafty in their approach by using such means as social media sites to prey on children. Others, namely 45-year-old rapper “Too Short,” have gone from singing about abuse to instructing boys on how to sexually abuse girls. As this world becomes more wickedly predatory we have to become wiser in protecting our children.