Twenty-six leading organizations for survivors of childhood
sexual violence are calling for an Executive Order from President
Biden.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 5, 2023
/PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Twenty-six leading organizations for
survivors of childhood sexual violence are calling for an Executive
Order from President Biden. Today, February
3rd, members of the Keep Kids Safe and Ending Online Sexual
Abuse and Exploitation of Children Coalition released a letter
containing signatures from these organizations within the fields of
prevention, healing, and justice ahead of the State of the Union on
Tuesday.
Sexual violence against children and adolescents in the United States is rampant public health
crisis. In 2021, National Center for Missing & Exploited
Children's CyberTipline received 29.3 million reports of suspected
child sexual exploitation, an increase of 35% from 2020 and 73%
from 2019. Ninety-nine percent of these reports were of suspected
child sexual abuse materials (CSAM). The widespread production,
distribution, and consumption of CSAM point not only to the need to
prevent the creation of and remove this content online, but also to
rescue children who are being abused both online and offline. Abuse
can happen to children while at home, at school, in sports, at
church, and in other community organizations and activities. It is
important to remember that children are at a greater risk of being
abused by the people they know including their families, friends,
and other adults in their circle of trust.
For a variety of reasons, child sexual abuse is woefully
underreported. Statistics indicate that in in 10 children are
sexually abused before their 18th birthday in the United States. Rates of sexual violence
are 7 to 10 times higher for children and adolescents with
cognitive and physical disabilities. Gender nonconforming,
transgender children, and LGBTQ+ children are at greater risk.
In addition, the mental health costs of this abuse are
astounding. The total lifetime economic burden of child sexual
abuse in the United States in 2015
was estimated to be at least $9.3
billion. The economic cost of this abuse only compounds over
time.
In this Executive Order, we're asking President Biden's office
to do the following:
- Invest in programs that prevent the initial perpetration of
child sexual abuse and exploitation, including through
technology-facilitated interactions, to help reduce the number of
incidents. Resources and training should be provided to educate all
children, youth, parents, and child-serving professionals on how to
prevent, identify and respond to online and offline child sexual
abuse and exploitation through programs that are survivor-centered
and trauma-informed.
- Establish a senior leadership position in the White House to
coordinate action at the federal level on all forms of child sexual
abuse and exploitation.
- Mobilize financial resources in the upcoming budget for federal
domestic and global agency programs that focus on prevention
efforts and healing and justice for survivors, as well as improved
data collection and research on the global and national prevalence
of online and offline childhood sexual violence, as well as risk
and protective factors particularly for children with disabilities,
children from ethnic and racial minority backgrounds, children that
identify as LGBTQI+, child runaways, and victims of child
trafficking.
- Work with Congress to develop comprehensive national
legislation to include policies, programs, and research to prevent
all forms of sexual violence against children, protect and support
healing for survivors, reduce the cost of sexual violence to
society, and provide access to justice for victims.
- Improve support for child survivors of all forms of sexual
abuse and exploitation by increasing investment in and the
availability of comprehensive, victim-centered and trauma-informed
assistance programs, including mental health treatment, counseling
and legal services led by professionals specifically trained to
support survivors of childhood sexual abuse and exploitation as
part of larger efforts to break the life cycle of abuse and to aid
in healing.
- Increase efforts to improve existing technology and develop new
technology, including age verification, anti-grooming and child
sexual abuse material detection tools, to better protect children
online.
- Provide additional funding to increase the staffing,
incentives, and training of law enforcement officers tasked with
investigating online sexual exploitation and abuse of children
cases, including capacity-building on the latest investigative
techniques and tools and ensure funding is available to continue to
build partnerships with other countries to jointly investigate
cross-national cases and support opportunities for information
sharing, training, and learning.
- Increase funding to support Homeland Security child
exploitation investigative efforts at home and abroad to interdict
child sexual abuse material offenders and to increase efforts to
identify children seen in these materials who remain
unidentified.
- Expand U.S. support for global programs to end all forms of
sexual violence against children.
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About the Keep Kids Safe Movement The Keep Kids Safe Movement
is a powerful movement between organizations, survivors, and allies
focused on ending sexual violence against children and adolescents,
online and offline, in all its forms – child sexual abuse, incest,
child sexual exploitation, rape, sexual violence in dating
relationships, and sexual violence among peers. The movement is
focused on inclusive, comprehensive, bold and transformative action
from leaders including: prevention to protect this and every
generation to come, healing for victims, survivors, and their
families, and justice for victims and survivors and accountability
for perpetrators and institutions who covered up the abuse. For
more information, visit our website HERE.
About the Ending Online Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of
Children Coalition
The Ending Online Sexual Exploitation and Abuse of Children (OSEAC)
Coalition is a U.S. advocacy coalition that aims to improve U.S.
government policies and programs to better prevent and address the
online sexual exploitation and abuse of children and provide
appropriate support to survivors. Officially formed in early 2022,
the coalition is the result of a series of community discussions
held in 2021 to build a unified movement amongst civil society to
address this growing threat to the safety and wellbeing of
children. Together we are working to galvanize political will and
leadership to take action to ensure children are able to navigate
online spaces safely. For more information, please visit our
website HERE.
Media Contact
Kristen Moir, Keep Kids Safe, 1
908-246-7289, kmoir@d2l.org
SOURCE Keep Kids Safe