Child Sexual Exploitation

While in Atlanta recently, I read with horrified interest in the Journal-Constitution that the entire metro area there had quickly and solidly become a breeding ground for expansive child exploitation.

That same theme was amplified a few days ago on the Op-Ed pages of the N. Y. Times in a spectacularly riveting column by Bob Herbert who had spent much time there working on a story about same.

Law enforcement and child support services now contend that  Atlanta has become THE Capitol of Child Sexual Exploitation in the United States with all of the outgrowths and poisons and horrors that follow.

Did you know that experts estimate that 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys are sexually abused before their 18^th birthdays; it is all around us, it comes in every way imaginable, from the internet, in schools, in neighborhoods. In more than 90% of sexual abuse cases, the child and the child’s family know and trust the abuser.

This is on my mind. This is a terrible thing. Please be vigilant. Please help.

A great place to start is with Charleston's own and nationally lauded DARKNESS TO LIGHT. Here’s a link: www.darkness2light.org and too, here’s D2L’s tollfree Helpline number: 1-866-367-5444.  Darkness to Light believes that adults should take steps to protect children from risk of sexual abuse . 

Please be active in the fight to end child sexual exploitation. Thanks so much.