The SafeToNet Foundation has published a safeguarding podcast in which Holly Bentley and Martha Kirby of the NSPCC talk about the 2019 edition of the NSPCC’s How safe are our children? report. The report focusses on the most up-to-date statistics relating to issues of online safety and online abuse in the UK, and the podcast explores the ten indicators that form the framework of the report.
Listen to the podcast: How safe are our children? A discussion with the NSPCC
The Blog
The truth about paedophilia
Sexual attraction to children is a lot more common than most people realise. The background to paedophilia is given, what may lead to people acting on this and how non-paedophiles may abuse children. Three men who say they’ve never offended but struggle with the attraction they feel towards children talk about their lives, and includes the fear of mandatory reporting should they ask for help. Issues which may lead to abuse occurring are covered, such as opportunity, impulse control, substance abuse and cognitive impairment.
https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/the-signal/the-truth-about-paedophilia/11044488
Inside the life of a ‘Virtuous’ Pedophile
This short film gives a personal overview of a non-offending paedophile and how he approaches life and his sexuality.
The Paedophile next door (True crime documentary)
This programme addresses how children can be kept safer in today’s society. In order to do this a non-offending paedophile is interviewed, police experts talk and Dr Sarah Goode puts forward the need to understand the issues. It looks back at a time when the ‘Paedophile Information Exchange’ was active and partitioned parliament on age of consent. This enabled a network where abusers in care homes and schools were active. The public protests in the 1990’s when paedophiles were housed in the community are shown and the effect of this driving offenders from where they lived to places unknown to the authorities. Offering help before a paedophile acts out is advocated and the need to listen to these people stressed. Preventative measures around online safety in the home, community support (Circles) and the Prevention project Dunkelfeld are outlined.
Safeguarding in faith communities
The NSPCC has released the latest episode of its child protection podcast series. This week’s episode focuses on what safeguarding means to faith communities and groups. The podcast discusses the important role faith communities play in children and young people’s lives, and covers topics including: why faith groups need to understand their safeguarding responsibilities; the challenges that safeguarding children and young people in faith communities brings; and how faith communities can develop a safeguarding culture that works alongside other cultural beliefs, values and customs.
Listen to the podcast: Faith-based communities
Effect of having a parent in prison
Mary Falcon talks to Katelen Fortunati, the author of the Safer Society’s Storybooks for children with incarcerated parent(s). (See Self Help, Children / Adolescents). They discuss, how parent-child attachments are impacted by parental incarceration, how communication is affected and ways around this by drawing and writing to the parent; also the importance of truth about the situation. Attachment and mental health issues are discussed. Counselling and accompanying the children on visits to the incarcerated parent also formed part of Katelen’s work.
Online Sexual Grooming
The NSPCC has released figures from a Freedom of Information request to police forces in England and Wales which show that there were at least 4,373 offences of sexual communication with a child recorded in the year to April 2019 compared with 3,217 in the previous year; where age was provided, One in five victims were aged 11 or younger; and the number of recorded instances of the use of Instagram was more than double that of the previous year.
Article: Recorded online sexual grooming crimes rise by a third
Disclosure on Child Sexual Abuse
The Centre of expertise on child sexual abuse (CSA Centre) has published key messages from research on disclosures of child sexual abuse. Findings include: disclosure is best understood as a process which is influenced by relationships and may extend over a considerable period of time; rates of verbal disclosure are low at the time that abuse occurs; children say they are trying to disclose their abuse when they show signs or act in ways that they hope adults will notice; teachers are the professionals to whom children will most commonly disclose; and certain children may face additional barriers to disclosure.
Read the blog: Don’t wait for them to tell us: recognising and responding to signs of child sexual abuse
We need to talk about Cornwall’s online child sex offenders – Opinion
An article by a Court Reporter who considers the effect on families of his reporting.
Need for more discussion around paedophilia in order to prevent child sex abuse
Virtuous Paedophiles (VP) is introduced and a number of recommendations for addressing situations where a person admits to being attracted to children are given.“I’d say first not to panic, and to remember this is the same person you’ve known all along, with all their complexity and good points. It’s something they didn’t choose and can’t change, and telling you is a big risk they are taking.” Ethan, from VP, thus suggests gently trying to find out if the person is abusing children or thinks they might be in serious danger of doing so as this calls for action to stop it immediately or prevent it from happening. “Calling police is usually not the best first step, as it sets in motion a highly invasive process that can easily make everything worse. Research the laws and procedures in your area before revealing anything.”
It is crucial to have a conversation about paedophilia and the lack of resources and services available to paedophiles in Australia. Increased awareness and understanding of paedophilia is important in order to remove the stigma associated with an indiscriminate mental disorder. A discussion about the inadequacy of services available to paedophiles is absolutely beneficial, especially when it can prevent child sex abuse.