The high price of sexually exploiting children

More and more experts are making a connection between the sexual portrayal of children and adolescents in everyday media and actual sexual abuse. When children are glamorized as sexual objects, it condones the use of children in sexual contexts, which is always inappropriate. It confuses children, leading them to think that this is a good way to behave--even adults think so.

  As boundaries between adult and child are blurred, standards for what is acceptable are lowered and we are all desensitized. In the most extreme cases, it serves to validate the child sexual abuser's excuse that children are asking for sex. So even if your children aren't the ones in the commercials, they can still pay the price of this offensive practice.

Indifference to this problem is taking a big toll. The number and severity of sexual abuse reports are increasing. It is estimated that at least 20 percent of women and 5-10 percent of men experienced some form of sexual abuse as children. The damage left by sexual abuse, both psychological and physical, may last through adulthood and affects all of society.

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Committee on
Child Abuse & Neglect
of the N.C. Pediatric Society

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