Have any of you seen the documentary and TV show called "A Friend of the Family"?
Teach your children to recognise groomers and if they're too young to speak, never leave them with strangers if you can help it, even daycare centres. Teach them early on to wash their own nether regions and to not let anyone touch them or to touch other people in certain places. A lot of girls, boys and women get molested and even raped by a relative, so don't think you have to watch out for strangers, predators are in people's households and families.
Here is some useful information:
Molestors are hard to spot, they can present as very charming and they find a way to be around your children alone. They will make everyone drop their guard and they will do things in the open so that nobody believes the victim. Tell your children there is no such thing as a 'secret' between parent and child and that they can tell you everything, no matter how bad it is. Keep your heads on a swivel and protect the kids!
Teach your children to recognise groomers and if they're too young to speak, never leave them with strangers if you can help it, even daycare centres. Teach them early on to wash their own nether regions and to not let anyone touch them or to touch other people in certain places. A lot of girls, boys and women get molested and even raped by a relative, so don't think you have to watch out for strangers, predators are in people's households and families.
Here is some useful information:
Groomers Use Tricks. Grooming is a subtle (hard to notice), gradual (slow), and escalating (more and worse over time) process of building βtrustβ with a kid and often the kidβs parent or other caretaker. (I always use written and gestured quotation marks around the word βtrustβ in this context, to highlight that itβs not real trust.) Grooming tricks include:
- Fake Trustworthiness β pretending to be the kidβs friend in order to gain their trust
- Testing Boundaries β jokes, roughhousing, back rubs, tickling, or sexualized games (pants-ing, truth or dare, strip games, etc.)
- Touch β from regular, mostly comfortable non-sexual touch to βaccidentalβ touch of private parts, often over time
- Intimidation β using fear, embarrassment, or guilt to keep a kid from telling
- Sharing sexual material β capitalizing on a kidβs natural curiosity to normalize sexual behavior by showing pictures, videos, text messages, photos, websites, notes, etc. of a sexual nature
- Breaking Rules β encouraging a kid to break rules, which establishes secret-keeping as part of the relationship and can be used as blackmail in the future
- Drugs and Alcohol β breaking the rules (see above) and/or making kids less able to stop the abuse because theyβre under the influence of the substance
- Communicating Secretly β texting, emailing, or calling in an unexpected way (parents donβt know about it, it happens a lot, the kid is told to keep it a secret)
- Blaming and Confusing β making the kid feel responsible for the abuse or what could happen to the kid, his/her family, or the abuser if the kid tells
Itβs not just the child who is groomed
Many paedophiles gain access to the child through their parents, developing trusting relationships that mean the parents feel their children are in safe company, even when left alone with the offender. Unfortunately, this makes it even more difficult for the child to report the abuse.
Grooming over the internet
In cases of online grooming, the offender uses many of the same techniques as the offender offline. The aim of the offender is still to develop a relationship that can lead to sexual behaviour. An offender can masquerade as a child of any age, sex or appearance and can pretend to have the same hobbies in order to trick a child into meeting them.
Molestors are hard to spot, they can present as very charming and they find a way to be around your children alone. They will make everyone drop their guard and they will do things in the open so that nobody believes the victim. Tell your children there is no such thing as a 'secret' between parent and child and that they can tell you everything, no matter how bad it is. Keep your heads on a swivel and protect the kids!
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