Is It Sexual Abuse?

So what is sexual abuse? What is meant by being molested? (Sexual abuse is also called molesting).

Sexual abuse is anything sexual that happens between a kid and someone older. The older person may not even be a grown up – it could be an older kid. It may include touching, or it may not. That's one of the things that can make it confusing!

Sometimes it’s obvious that a situation between a kid and someone older has become sexual. Like if the older person touches or kisses a child in private placesLike where your bathing suit goes – your penis, your vagina, your breasts or your bottom. or kisses them romantically on the mouth, maybe using their tongue. Sometimes the older person makes the kid touch the older person’s private parts, or makes a kid touch their own body in front of the adult. Sometimes the grownup touches their own sexual parts in front of a kid.

But sometimes it isn’t touching. Sexual abuse also includes talking about sex to a kid or making a kid watch sexual videos or look at sexual pictures. Or maybe the older person watches a kid undress or take a bath.

Here is what you need to know:

It is ALWAYS WRONG for anyone to do any of those things to you.

What if you are not sure? A kid usually thinks it feels ‘weird’ or ‘gross’ or ‘icky’, but the older person enjoys it.

Trust your feelings.

If you think what someone is doing with you is wrong, then it probably is.

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