A rise in child sexual abuse material cases: How parents can keep their kids safe
ATHENS, Ala. (WHNT) — The most important thing to a parent: keeping their children safe. The social media takeover has not only made that more difficult, but puts children in dangerous, illegal and unmonitored situations that may not happen in person.
“We used to talk about child pornography, and, what we feel is a better way to talk about this, is to call these images what they are,” National Children’s Advocacy Center Prevention Director Pam Clasgens said. “These are photographs of child sexual abuse, of children being abused. So, the terminology that we use now to describe this is child sexual abuse materials.”
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There’s a wide range of materials that fall underneath this umbrella. The most common being sexually explicit photographs. The growth of social media and the Internet has only increased cases like these and made them more accessible for perpetrators.
“There really are predators out there, people that want to exploit children,” Athens Police Detective Lieutenant Jonathan Caldwell said. “We do the best that we can to catch them, but, usually by the time we know about it, someone has already been victimized.”
Parents may feel hopeless when it comes to monitoring their children’s online activity, but that is not entirely true.
“Watch what apps they have on their phone,” Caldwell said. “And, apps that they can’t monitor, like Snapchat, I just wouldn’t let them have it.”
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But, there are moments when parents can step in without even intervening digitally.
“Talking to our children is the very most important thing a parent can do to protect them from this,” Clasgens said. “…whatever age your child is right now is the best time to start talking with them.”
Clasgens goes onto to say that these conversations can be teaching younger children how to appropriately use the Internet, and teaching older children to be weary of engaging with strangers online.
All of this looping back to the common idea of ensuring your child feels supported and comfortable enough to tell you if something is going on.
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