Child abuse is an inappropriate behavior directed towards a child that causes physical or emotional abuse .It can take many forms. You can also analyze your own behavior towards your children; you can even observe people around you who behave in an objectionable way with their children or when you see any person molesting a child. The following description will help you in identifying various forms. We need to take every measure to prevent Child Abuse, research suggest that family violence is one of the main causes of child abuse. Acts of child abuse mostly happens in the family and never gets exposed; needful measures should be taken to provide a safe environment to every child. Lets identity and eliminate all the root causes of child abuse.

Forms of Child Abuse

• Sexual Abuse
• Emotional Abuse
• Physical Abuse

Child abuse includes any kind of inappropriate sexual behavior that asks for child’s participation to fulfill the sexual desire in you or of any other individual. The intention of using child’s body to arouse your sexual desire is considered to be illegal. It is considered to be a criminal behavior if committed then the person will be prosecuted under the legal system.

Sexual Abuse of a child includes wide forms of activities

• Acts like touching child’s genitals to stimulate sexual feelings.

• Seeing a naked child without clothes with wrong intentions to excite sexually.

• Videotaping children in naked posture to arouse your sexual lust is considered inappropriate and considered a felonious crime.

• Any intention to seduce a minor, to form a sexual relationship is regarded as a child abuse.

Parents guide to prevent their child from sexual abuse.

We often think that the child offender can’t be your friend or your relative or for that matter your own family member. One of the main myths about the child abuser is people think that only strangers can sexually abuse your child. It can be anyone who has a bad intention towards children; they don’t give any importance to the kind of relation they share with the child.

Reasons for not sharing their sexual abuse

It is important for the victim of sexual abused to come forward and report the crime. Older children feel hesitant to tell their parents because the child molester has developed fear in the child’s mind. It’s always recommended to beware of all the symptoms which can help you to see the signs and symptoms in your child. Every parent should discuss any kind of possible changes with a professional help for proper evaluation. Some children fear that they will be left out if they will tell their sexually abused act, or may be nobody will believe their side of the traumatic story.

Symptoms of a sexually abused child

• Sexually abused child go through a touch phase. You will notice a drastic change in the child’s behavior. He will stop socializing with his/her friends, family members, siblings. Sudden outburst of tears without any reason.

• Certain sudden changes in the behavior like unnecessary getting agitated, bed wetting, having nightmares, insomnia, anxiety, fear and feeling depressed all the times.

• Notice your child getting scared from some known or unknown person, then don’t ignore this behavior, it’s a sign that they don’t want to be alone with them. It’s a natural signal that a child will develop fear against the person who molested them; they are unable to realize what exactly the molester did with them.

• If your child has stopped enjoying things he/she used to enjoy like her/his favorite sports, cartoons etc. When the child stops communicating with his/her friends or with you.

• If you notice bruises, rashes or injuries on your child’s body and when asked your child has no explanation to tell you.

• To identify any physical signs of child’s sexual abuse, parents should know the normal appearance of the genitalia of their child so that they can identify if any changes occurred. If a child complains about problems with his or her genitals then take your child to a family doctor for examination.

• When your child fantasies sexual encounters. When you see your child playing any kind sexually oriented video games, sexual acts with toys or with other children.

• Eating disorder (overeating or under eating)

• The child will become destructive for example they will hurt themselves physically. They start hating their body, develop low self esteem.

• Parents should always communicate with their children and educate them about sexual abuse. You can form stories and make them explain in a casual way, so that your child will understand that what he/she should do if they face any kind of sexual abuse.

Healing process

• It’s not easy for sexually abused survivors to recover from the trauma, if your children share any sexually abused story which happened with him/her then be calm and listen to them carefully. Give them lots of care and love.

• Hug your child and reassure them that they will provide support and will never let that happen to them again. Never scold them or blame them for any exploitation which the child went through.

• It is very important to be calm, don’t traumatize the child any further. You will definitely go through anguish but you can’t express it in front of the child, he/she can perceive your anger against themselves.

Provide a safe environment to your child

• Privacy - Every child should be taught not to invade anyone’s privacy or not to allow anyone to infringe your privacy also. For example keep your bedrooms, bathrooms locked.

• Sex Education - Every child should be educated about the basic sex information. Explain them various body parts like vagina, breasts, penis, buttocks so that if anyone try to fiddle with their child’s gentile they would know that this is inappropriate. If any people touch your private parts, then very child should inform their parents so that they can protect their children.

• Learn how to say “NO” - If an individual show you adult movies or vulgar pictures to stimulate you sexually then just move out of the place.

Your child will take some time to recover from sexual abuse; it’s an on going process. The child will survive from the traumatic sexual abuse gradually. If your child is unable to recover from the sexual abuse then seek professional help. If you face any victim of child molestation then stand up to provide them child support and immediately contact the child abuse organizations!