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How can I best prevent sibling sexual abuse in my family? The best way to prevent sibling sexual abuse is to pay attention to your children: Set aside a time each day when your children have a chance to tell you about what they’ve done or felt that day. This might be after school or before bed-time. Ensure that children are well looked after by baby-sitters, whether the sitter is a family member or not. At breakfast you can ask your children specific questions about the previous evening; for example, did they watch their favourite TV program? did they play video games? did they cooperate with the sitter? was the sitter kind? would they like to have the same sitter again? Be willing to talk about sexuality. Informal sex education could include watching educational videos and reading books with your children. Try to find library materials on sex education that are appropriate to the age of your child. Encourage your children’s school to present sexual abuse prevention films and programs. Most of them do, but it doesn’t hurt to ask. The programs usually carry the message, "If someone is making you do something that doesn’t feel good, tell a trusted adult." Find out where your children are playing, and who they’re playing with. Be especially concerned if they’re playing with children who are focused on sexual games. Teach your children that they own their bodies and everyone should respect that. Monitor television violence. Movies and television programs that link sex and violence carry a dangerous message to children. Research shows these messages have a strong negative effect on children. Encourage non-sexist attitudes and behaviour. For example: give power, responsibility and privileges equally to male and female siblings; assign household tasks fairly, and discourage sexist jokes and sexist put-downs. Believe them. Children rarely invent stories of sexual abuse to get a brother or sister into trouble.
