In an average primary school class there are approximately two children who experience sexual abuse. In most cases it is not the dirty man in the bushes or the scary man in the playground. In 85 percent of cases, the perpetrator is a known person. For example, a father, babysitter or aunt.
This makes it difficult for many to discuss sexual abuse. That’s why the campaign starts today Dare to seein which the Center for Sexual Violence Groningen-Drenthe is involved.
The campaign calls for: ‘Don’t look away from child sexual abuse, but dare to face it’. “We don’t dare to see it, because those 85 percent are also very nice men and women,” explains Fetzen de Groot, coordinator of the Groningen-Drenthe Sexual Violence Center. “These people have a lot of love for those children and do nice things with them. But they also show other behavior that we close our eyes to, because it is almost unimaginable that someone also does these kinds of horrible things.”
In the coming period, a campaign video will be shown on social media, posters will be hung and vlogs will appear to point out to people that looking away has major consequences for the victims. “Children live in pure loneliness with that big secret,” says De Groot. “As a result, they cannot get help and can be traumatized for the rest of their lives.”
De Groot explains what you can do if you suspect that someone close to you is experiencing sexual abuse in the video below: