Most of the people who abuse children are people they know well. However, children will NOT be made safer by being given this potentially devastating message: “By the way, the person who will probably hurt you the most is someone you love and trust.” In Kidpower, our goal is to give children tools for staying [...]

One of Kidpower’s boundary rules is that “Problems should not be secret!” To help prevent potential problems, we also tell children that, “Touch should not be a secret. And presents someone gives you or games someone asks you to play should not be a secret.”

Understanding about bribes can help protect kids from abuse. Although people who have bad intentions might try to coerce others by offering them bribes, just telling children not to take bribes can be very confusing.

Reader’s Question: My five-year-old daughter was at a friend’s house and they accidentally saw a website that had inappropriate sexual content. They didn’t get very far before the adults there stopped them, but I was horrified. My daughter insists that it didn’t bother her and she doesn’t remember anyway what they saw, but now she [...]