Health professionals blast sex-abuse prevention model

Interesting story out of the U.S. about sex-abuse prevention programs potential harm.

HUNTINGTON, Ind. (Our Sunday Visitor) – When the U.S. bishops created a program to protect children from sexual abuse in the wake of the scandal that rocked the church, they included a mandate that children be taught sex-abuse prevention.

Now, as the bishop's landmark response, "Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People," nears its fifth anniversary, one group of Catholic health-care professionals has declared the prevention programs ineffective and potentially harmful and has called on the bishops to rescind the mandate.

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Dr. Lynne Bissonnette-Pitre, a physician-psychiatrist and lead author of the study, told Our Sunday Visitor that the child-empowerment models, which teach children to recognize things like "bad touch" and other potentially dangerous behaviors, rely on children to do the policing and introduce concepts that can be frightening.

"It causes children to be very confused. You could have a child who is 6 years old hearing about sexual abuse. It's a deviant, perverted form of sexuality that has nothing to do with love and marriage and chastity and responsibility for others. It's very frightening for the child and causes them to have confusion as to who is a safe person and who isn't," said Bissonnette-Pitre.

"A trusting relationship with parents and with trustworthy adults is a real protective factor for children and they need it to develop. We should not be giving children information earlier than they can handle it," she said

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