USA TODAY International Edition
‘ Pedophile’ comments diminish child sexual abuse
Widespread, casual use of insult crosses the line
In our toxic and brain- optional political climate, certain pundits, politicos and random Twitter dingbats have decided to spend the early days of National Child Abuse Prevention Month shooting the label “pedophile” around like a spitball.
It’s outrageous, several steps beyond offensive and utterly indefensible. Though we live in an age when many of the lines you don’t cross have been run over and worn away, this particular trend crosses a line the vast majority of us can still see clearly. And it has to stop.
Senators who plan to vote in favor of U. S. Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson are being labeled “pro- pedophile,” a malicious assertion grounded in nonsense. People who speak out against the Florida Parental Rights in Education law — called the “don’t say gay” law by opponents – are swiftly declared, by some, to be pedophiles.
From politicians to TV hosts
These horrendous claims are leveled not just by online trolls but by members of Congress and the hosts of television shows viewed by millions.
On Tuesday night, Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said: “The Democrats are the party of pedophiles.”
Liberals are sometimes turning around, highlighting lists of high- profile Republicans who’ve been accused of or admitted to child sexual abuse and tossing the “pedophile” label back.
Let me say this: NOBODY should be hurling the term “pedophile” around like a schoolyard insult. It clumsily implies an unspeakable crime and diminishes an issue that deserves nothing but serious concern.
I don’t care what your politics are, if you’re shouting “PEDOPHILE!” at random people, you’re making it clear you know nothing whatsoever about the issue of child sexual abuse and care about it even less.
Child sexual abuse is widespread
According to the U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about one out of every four girls “experience child sexual abuse at some point in childhood.” For boys it’s about one out of every 13.
A 2019 study conducted by researchers from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and Google found the illegal distribution of child sexual abuse imagery online “has grown exponentially – to nearly 1 million detected events per month – exceeding the capabilities of independent clearinghouses and law enforcement to take action.”
I spoke this week with Char Rivette, executive director of the Chicago Children’s Advocacy Center, and asked how the flippant use of the word “pedophile” impacts the important work her organization and others like it across the country are doing.
“It shouldn’t be a term loosely flung around as a derogatory term,” Rivette said. “Whenever I hear this kind of thing I just think, ‘ Oh great, here we go again, another way- out- there point of view that’s totally inaccurate, that totally misrepresents what’s going on.’”
Distracting from the real issue
She continued: “It just detracts and distracts from the real issue, which is that children are most likely to be sexually abused by a member of the family, a friend of the family or someone known by the child. Any time we start directing energy somewhere else, we are ignoring the reality that children need to be protected within their own family and groups. And we aren’t actually doing anything that protects children.”
Research shows about 90% of child sexual abuse is perpetrated by someone known to the family. Rivette said that’s what her groups sees in Chicago.
“We’re a microcosm of the country,” she said. “There are 1,000 children’s advocacy centers across the country and they’d all tell you about the same thing. The vast majority of these cases are somebody who spent time with the family. It’s not stranger danger.”
Jenny Coleman, director of the Massachusetts- based advocacy group Stop It Now!, said: “If you’re using child sexual abuse as a way to scare people into practicing your values, that’s not right. That’s absolutely not right. Child sexual abuse is one of the worst things anyone can think of, and it’s being used to demonize people in a way that has nothing to do with prevention. This kind of demonizing of people, saying they’re a pedophile, is actually making the environment more dangerous.”
She said her organization has worked hard to debunk myths surrounding child sexual abuse, teaching people abusers don’t fit any specific profile.
“It’s really easy to think of a monster,” she said. “But it crosses all faiths, all genders, all political profiles, all economic profiles and all cultures.”
We should focus on prevention
If any of the people flinging the term “pedophile” around online or shouting it into a microphone actually cared about child sexual abuse, they’d be using their platforms, particularly during National Child Abuse Prevention Month, to discuss how to keep abuse from happening.
“We can look at these opportunities to talk to each other and say, ‘ Hey, I know you really want the best for children, so let’s set standards of behavior that help us monitor behaviors,” Coleman said. “A safety plan is the adults’ responsibility. Adults need to set the rules – rules for a family that are just like other rules.”
Rivette said: “The best defense against your child being victimized is to be aware of the adults in your child’s life, set up boundaries, have rules in your house that kids don’t sit under blankets with adults, we don’t allow kids alone in rooms with one adult, we don’t keep doors closed. You have house rules and boundaries that you always enforce.”
She said it’s also important to “have open communication with your child from a very early age about sexual health, about their bodies, about protecting their bodies.”
People in positions of power and people with social- media platforms large and small could be having fact- based, educational conversations about the seriousness of child sexual abuse in America.
They could be promoting the work and advice of groups such as Rivette’s and Coleman’s and others across the country.
Instead, some are choosing to cross a line that not long ago would’ve been taboo. Some are choosing to act like cruel fools.
We need to remind them where that line is.
This has to stop.