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Common risk situations
Here are some examples of where children have been abused by trusted people:
- Babysitting by unrelated teenage boys or men (including a boyfriend of the female babysitter).
- On 'sleepovers' when the child's parent had never met the host parents.
- Where a man who becomes known to a family as a friend but then gradually increases his involvement so that in time he arranges to have time alone with a child.
- In youth and religious activities where a child's parent has never met the leaders and assistants.
- In educational situations where a teacher takes special interest in a child and arranges time alone with the child.
- Music tuition or other leisure activities that involve individual, private attention and the child seems reluctant to go.
- In family situations where a child is left alone with someone the child sometimes seems uncomfortable with.
- Whatever takes place face-to-face can now happen over the Internet through use of email, chat rooms, social networking sites, web cams, etc.
It is important to understand that there is an infinite number of situations that could become dangerous for a child and it is impossible to describe them all.
It is not necessarily the situation that is dangerous but the attitudes and behaviour of the people involved. These are the warning signs that a parent must learn to recognise and then educate their child about.
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