Prevention can be understood as a way to reduce possible harms to body, soul and mind while encouraging positive interactions, although there is no a generally applied definition. When talking about sexual violence, prevention refers to creating healthy and safe circumstance behaviors to prevent these events from happening (Zollner, Fuchs, & Fegert, 2014).

Sexual violence is not just an act of penetration but can take many forms: touching the body in a sexual way, whether the victim is wearing clothes or not, forcing the victim to imply in sexual activity, providing pornographic materials (photos, videos) and performing acts of sexual violence or sexual activity in front of the victim. With regard to sexual violence against children, it is known that the perpetrators of such abuses are known persons, in the child’s closed circle. According to Hidayati & Nurhafizah (2022, p. 76), this is because children are considered weak and helpless and thus are vulnerable to sexual violence.

Child sexual abuse has a major impact on children’s lives. The common negative effects experienced by victims are often psychological disorders. Researchers have found that the trauma of childhood sexual abuse has long-term negative psychological effects on both, women and men, if they have been victimized. While short-term effects such as depression, emotional changes, loneliness, anxiety can be observed shortly after the victim has been subjected to sexual violence, the long-term effects are quite difficult to identify, as they occur over time. These can include impaired sexual function, severe depression, uncontrolled anxiety, fear. Excessive suspiciousness, aggression, antisocial behavior, suicidal ideation, post-traumatic stress disorder (more information here) or dissociation (Dissociation in children and adolescents) (Bunga Azani Putri, 2022).

Given the fact that the number of cases of sexual violence against children is on the rise, as in Romania during the period January – June 2024 there were 1011 cases of sexual abuse of minors, compared to 2023, when there were approximately 1500 cases during the whole year, and that sexual violence is not something that children understand, it is very important that they have knowledge about sexuality from as young an age as possible (ANPDCA, 2024). However, for parents, discussions about sexuality are still a taboo subject, and they avoid talking to their children or answering their curiosity on the topic.

In this regard, numerous studies have concluded that introducing sexuality education from an early age can facilitate the development of children’s potential so that they can increase their self-confidence, have a healthy personality, accept themselves, and be able to protect and defend themselves from the danger of sexual violence. According to Haryono et al. (2018), sex education provided to children from an early age has various benefits:

1. It provides knowledge and accurate description of information about sexual issues, so it can help children to understand the functions of the reproductive organs and how to care for them;
2. Can prevent children from being victims of different types of sexual offenses.

Early sexuality education is an asset in shaping the healthiest life in the future. It can be provided by parents, teachers or other professionals who have information about sex education in different ways, such as:

1. Recognizing body parts: talks about body parts in basic, real terms without using different allusions or substitutes for them. It is important for a child to distinguish between female and male genitals and to know which parts of the body can and cannot be touched by others.
2. Encourage good communication with your child: communication is one of the most important means of bonding with a person, especially when it comes to children. Through good communication, parents can pass on and provide information about sex education as well as warnings about protecting their own bodies.
3. Use as simple language as possible when explaining sex education: simple, direct and age-appropriate language is the best way for the child to understand the information according to his or her abilities.
4. Use interactive methods for children when providing information: using methods such as stories, questions and answers, interactive videos, pictures can help them to understand and capture their attention.
5. Teach about shame culture: the child should know that it is not appropriate to stand naked in front of other people, even if they are his parents or siblings or other children of the same age.

Sex education contains information about human sexuality. The information provided through it includes the process of contraception, pregnancy, childbirth, sexual behavior, sexual interaction, appearance, consent and consent, as well as psychological and social information. It also covers knowledge about the moral, ethical and consensual use of reproductive organs. In this respect, psychologists recommend that young children should receive information about sex education from as early an age as possible, in accordance with their level of development.

Bibliography

ANPDCA. (2024). Children and adoption statistics. Retrieved from Ministry of Labor, Family, Youth and Social Solidarity – National Authority for the Protection of Children’s Rights and Adoption: https://copii.gov.ro/1/date-statistice-copii-si-adoptii/

Bunga Azani Putri Azani, G. (2022, January). Sex education in primary school to prevent child sexual abuse. Pendidikan Progress, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 7-11.

Hidayati, W., & Nurhafizah, N. (2022) Introducing sex education in early childhood: To reduce child sexual abuse. Indonesian journal of early childhood education studies, 11(1), pp. 75-82.

Zollner , H., Fuchs, K., & Fegert, J. (2014) Sexual abuse prevention: improving information is crucial. Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health, 8:5.

Article realized by Ramona Cîrcu, Activities Coordinator of Barnahus Center