The digital age is one of rapid technological and information advancement. The web puts information at the fingertips of many (though its benefits remain shockingly unequal in a world that could afford to put that information in the hands of all). What we as individuals and societies choose to do with that information remains a question of interpretation, interrogation, and critical thinking. Misinformation is growing just as fast, to critical impact, as seen through the rise of conspiracy theories like QAnon and its presence everywhere from the January 6th insurrection to the halls of State and Federal legislatures in the form of political candidates espousing its ideologies or supporting its leading voices. Every arena of life, then, is adapting to this digital age, and its new models of information networking. Including the arena of child sexual abuse prevention, in which Prostasia Foundation works hard to combat misinformation every day. It feels especially poignant then, that following his arrest, Jim Watkins, one of the leading QAnon voices was found to have been responsible for hosting enormous amounts of child sexual exploitation material, and many other voices in the QAnon conspiracy theory have been arrested for similar offenses since it began to gain traction.
There is a reason that those who abuse children tend to prey on our society’s emotional desperation to protect the youngest and most vulnerable among us. It is not because they care deeply about child protection. It is because fear impedes decision making – in particular when people are being fed bad information by trusted sources. The myth of Stranger Danger, the scapegoating of queer communities “grooming” young children into sexual deviancy, the promise of safety in moral and religious righteousness, it all plays a part in lulling parents into a false sense of security. “Don’t worry,” they promise, “You don’t need to have difficult and embarrassing conversations with your kids about sex. Just entrust them to us, and no harm will come to them, you’re a good, loving parent, you know what’s right.”
They’re half right. You are a good and loving parent. You do want what’s best for your kids. And talking about sex can be be difficult, complex, and filled with generations of stigma and shame, especially for those who have experienced religious trauma, sexual assault, or gender based violence. But the other half is where they hide the poison. When you entrust your children’s safety to people who preach the virtue of silence, of shame, and of scapegoating difference, you are entrusting them to people who put them more at risk, not less. More at risk from trusted adults in their lives who are more likely than a stranger to groom and abuse them. More at risk for downward spirals of shame, depression, self-harm, and suicide after it happens if they feel they have no one they can safely turn to, or no way to express what happened to them. More at risk for medical health problems down the line as their adverse childhood experiences add up.
So you may be asking yourself. What is prevention of child sexual abuse then, if not all the things these legislators and religious leaders have told us for so long? If the information readily available on the web can’t be trusted wholesale, what do I do instead? We here at Prostasia Foundation can’t give you every answer. But we can help you get started with some myth busting, some how-to’s, and a community of people learning together, just the same as you are. We all have young people in our lives we want to protect, and much like the old saying about raising children, to combat misinformation, it takes a village. We all want our communities to be safer for the young people growing up in them, so lets work together to make it happen. Even though it might make us a little uncomfortable sometimes. |