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Author Archives: Chris Yadon, MPA

Chris Yadon, MPA About Chris Yadon, MPA

As Saprea’s first employee and Executive Director, Chris Yadon collaborated closely with the organization’s founders to launch and establish its operations in 2015. Chris now serves as the Managing Director, leading the organization’s public efforts to drive societal change around the issue of child sexual abuse. He has previously held executive leadership positions for start-up tech and healthcare organizations. Chris is committed to driving broad societal change to address child sexual abuse and uses his influence as a thought leader and strategist to inspire others to take action. He firmly believes we can collectively create a better future for our children. A sought-after speaker, Chris inspires audiences with timely topics such as overcoming emotional numbing by learning how to feel again, protecting children from child sexual abuse in a hypersexualized world, and how to intentionally drive societal change. He has been featured across several media platforms where he is requested to contribute as an industry leader and subject matter expert. Chris received a BA and an MPA degree from Brigham Young University. He is the grateful father of six children: three boys and three girls. He and his wife, Christy, have been married for 28 years.

Child Sexual Abuse – Turning Statistics into Action and Protecting Kids

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Child Sexual Abuse – Turning Statistics into Action and Protecting Kids

Stats are sterile. We are inundated with so much data that we have become numb to their message – that is, until that stat becomes representative of someone we know and love.

Ten years ago, this happened to me. I started working in the social sector, combatting child sexual abuse. Almost immediately, people in my extended family, my neighborhood, my faith community, co-workers, old friends I had not seen in years, and even acquaintances started sharing their experiences as survivors of child sexual abuse.

I'll never forget the emotions that came to me as I heard their stories. First, a humbling wave of gratitude that they trusted me with something so deeply personal. Second, a crushing realization of my own ignorance—how could so many people I cherish have endured such trauma? These weren't distant acquaintances either. Some of them were people I've loved for years, people I consider close. The question haunted me: how had I remained blind to their suffering all this time?

At this time, the stats transformed from sterile numbers to deeply impactful stories. They represented real people, my people. Predictably, I have seen this same pattern repeat over and over with anyone willing to talk openly about child sexual abuse.

The Reality of Child Sexual Abuse Stats

At the risk of providing you with yet another set of figures to remember, let me briefly share the stats of child sexual abuse. UNICEF estimates that one in eight children worldwide are sexually abused.1 The CDC agrees when they report on prevalence in the United States. Citing credible research, the CDC says one in four girls and one in twenty boys will be sexually abused by age eighteen. These numbers are staggering and alarming. However, most research on prevalence narrowly defines child sexual abuse to include some physical touch. Yet, as technology-facilitated abuse has accelerated, we are starting to learn that the rates are much higher. A worldwide leader in prevalence research, Dr. David Finkelhor worked with colleagues to explain prevalence with technology-facilitated abuse added to the rates. We learn that numbers increase significantly to 10.8% of boys, 31.6% of girls, and 41.3% of those identifying as other genders.2

The Power of Survivor Stories

Like many of you, the stats of sexual abuse had never sunk in before all my loved ones shared their experiences, but then and now, these figures scream at me. I can no longer look the other way. I can’t discount the discomfort by saying the research must be wrong or that the research responses must have come from somewhere else and someone else. It was my family, my neighbors, my coworkers sharing their stories. What are we doing as a civilized society? How is it possible that we are not moving heaven and earth to stop this now?

I remember feeling very angry, as I took time to process the accounts of abuse shared with me. Angry at those that harm. Angry at those of us who look away. Angry at a society that decided the topic was too taboo to discuss. One thing about the emotion of anger is that it can be an excellent catalyst for change. We can do great things when we channel our anger into productive action.

Over the past ten years, I have worked to make a change. The impact has been measurable and significant, but compared to the size of the problem, we are just barely moving the needle. There is still so much to be done, and we must invoke a societal shift to see broad change.

Learning from historical, social movements, we see patterns of how big social issues like abuse shift. We’ve seen it in the civil rights movement, smoking cessation, and car seat safety. Following those patterns, we know that societal change happens when there is top-down and bottom-up pressure—without either one, change stalls. Think of top-down pressure like laws, enforcement of laws, awareness campaigns, or organized activism. Consider bottom-up pressure as neighborhood dialogue, organic media, and grassroots activism. Since most who read this article are part of that bottom-up movement, let’s highlight three ways to take action now.

How to Take Action Today

Start talking about the issue with those you love
Do what I did ten years ago—start talking about the issue of sexual abuse with those you love. The stats will become real for you just like they did for me, but more importantly, you will be instrumental in breaking down the taboo of the issue. Every honest discussion chips away at the stigma and makes change possible. No society has solved a problem without first discussing and naming it.
Educate Yourself on the Impacts and How to Reduce the Risk
Educate yourself on the long-term impacts of abuse on survivors as well as how to reduce risk for today’s kids. The organization I work for, Saprea, has tremendous resources, and so do many others.
Commit to Change
From your learning, choose and change one behavior when interacting with your kids. I recommend focusing on age-appropriate conversations about healthy boundaries, but you may pick something else. The key is to begin with personal change. Societal change happens because individuals commit to changing themselves first.

We have solved significant issues as a country and world. We can do it with sexual abuse as well. Don’t let sterile stats be your only connection to survivors and children. Create a world where survivors can heal, and children can maintain their innocence.

About the Author

Image

Chris Yadon, MPA

Managing Director
As Saprea’s first employee and Executive Director, Chris Yadon collaborated closely with the organization’s founders to launch and establish its operations in 2015. Chris now serves as the Managing Director, leading the organization’s public efforts to drive societal change around the issue of child sexual abuse. He has previously held executive leadership positions for start-up tech and healthcare organizations. Chris is committed to driving broad societal change to address child sexual abuse and uses his influence as a thought leader and strategist to inspire others to take action. He firmly believes we can collectively create a better future for our children. A sought-after speaker, Chris inspires audiences with timely topics such as overcoming emotional numbing by learning how to feel again, protecting children from child sexual abuse in a hypersexualized world, and how to intentionally drive societal change. He has been featured across several media platforms where he is requested to contribute as an industry leader and subject matter expert. Chris received a BA and an MPA degree from Brigham Young University. He is the grateful father of six children: three boys and three girls. He and his wife, Christy, have been married for 28 years.

Recent blogs

35384:full
Conversation Prompts for Parents: Talking About Sensitive Topics
Starting conversations about online safety and sextortion with teens can feel difficult. These practical conversation prompts help parents discuss sensitive topics, recognize red flags, and build trust so young people feel safe asking for help when they need it.
Read this article
35379:full
Common Platforms Where Sextortion Begins
Sextortion often begins on platforms teens use most, including social media, gaming chats, livestreams, and anonymous messaging apps. Understanding these high-risk spaces and teaching young people to recognize red flags can help parents protect them from online predators.
Read this article
34449:full
What Stops Children from Reporting Grooming: Understanding Barriers to Disclosure
Learn why children and teens often don’t report grooming, the manipulative tactics abusers use, and how caregivers can create safe, supportive environments to help survivors speak up and heal.
Read this article
SEE ALL blogs

Protecting Kids: Navigating a Hypersexualized World and Reducing Pornography Exposure

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Saprea > Blog > All Blogs > Protecting Kids: Navigating a Hypersexualized World and Reducing Pornography Exposure

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Protecting Kids: Navigating a Hypersexualized World and Reducing Pornography Exposure

I had just returned home from work and was putting away something in my closet when my sixth-grade daughter walked in and asked, “Dad, what does the word ‘prostitute’ mean? I know it has something to do with sex, but what does it mean?” Through the conversation, I discovered that she had heard the word on her elementary school playground. In that moment, I realized my response could either build a protective barrier against pornography or create curiosity that might lead toward it.

There is no quick fix that ensures your child will not purposely consume pornography, but a parent can do specific things that will reduce this risk. It is nearly impossible for a parent to prevent all accidental exposure to pornography. Still, again, a parent can do specific things that will reduce the volume of accidental exposures and their impact.

The Growing Problem of Children Exposed to Pornography

Rates of exposure, purposeful or accidental, are overwhelming. 53% of eleven-to sixteen-year-olds report seeing online pornography at least once. Of this sample, 94% report viewing online pornography before age fourteen.1 According to other research, these numbers are likely very conservative, with pornography consumption growing among minors of all genders.

With this level of prevalence, all children are at a high risk. Many past generations have been exposed to pornography as minors and led healthy lives. Some may even argue that pornography is part of the normal sexual development of young people. So, should we care or even bother?

Why Parental Intervention Matters – Risks and Realities

There are three specific reasons we should care and bother to intervene.

01
Sexual content is used to groom children
During interactions with a victim, 98% of online groomers introduce sexual content into the conversation within the first day. 69% introduce sexual content within the first 30 minutes of an initial interaction.2 Reducing exposure to pornography is part of reducing the risk of children encountering online predators.
02
The nature of today’s pornographic content is video-based and often violent.3
This exposure introduces children to unrealistic and harmful portrayals of sexual activity.
03
The consumption of pornography can become compulsive
Due to brain development, minors are more susceptible to the development of addictive or compulsive behaviors when exposed to a stimulus. Early exposure to pornography could create unwanted compulsions that are hard for the child to remove even in adulthood.

The Role of Technology – Reducing Accidental Exposure

There are great technologies that parents can use in their homes. However, parents must realize that their house is not the only place their children will have access. Children who want to access pornography are very resourceful and usually find a way. It could be through school resources, a friend’s device, bypassing parental controls, using a neighbor’s internet connection, and the list can go on and on.

While technology can reduce accidental exposure to explicit content, it's a limited defense against deliberate seeking. In fact, excessive reliance on technological barriers may actually undermine efforts to reduce the risk.

Overreliance on technology often leads to extensive technology restrictions. This is often the best approach for our younger children, but it can backfire as children grow. When a child, particularly an older teen, feels overly restricted, they often resort to deception to bypass restrictions. When they bypass a restriction, they shut down communication and turn to secrecy. Secrecy is where purposeful pornography consumption thrives and builds deep roots.

Parents should view technology as one tool in their overall tool belt, not as a fix-all. Like any tool, you use it for a specific job, but not every job. Purposeful consumption must be addressed through other methods and tools.

Combatting Purposeful Pornography Consumption – Effective Strategies

Pornography use among children flourishes in environments of dishonesty, embarrassment, and hidden behaviors. Understanding this makes it clearer how to intervene. Just know that reducing this risk requires deliberate, steady work that can be challenging. The foundation of success is keeping communication channels open.

Maintaining Open Communication With Your Child

Maintaining open communication with a child is a monumental task for any parent, even under ideal circumstances. Children go through regular and natural developmental stages to gradually assert their independence. It becomes common for teens to shut down or significantly limit dialogue with parents. Add to this the deception, shame, and secrecy, plus the awkwardness of talking about anything of a sexual nature, and you have a recipe for silence. And this recipe does not even account for the baggage we as parents carry into the relationship.

With all this against us, we may wonder if we will ever have a meaningful talk with our children again. So, how do we overcome these seemingly insurmountable odds to maintain open communication? We start early, reduce our tendency to inflict shame, and create safe spaces.

It was previously mentioned that children undergo stages of asserting their independence. Children also go through regular and natural developmental stages where their parent(s) are their entire world—their superheroes. And fortunately, this stage coincides with their early ability to rationalize. The sweet spot is usually between the ages of 6 and 10. Parents can use this stage to set curiosity, listening, and respect patterns when communicating with their children—reaping big rewards later as children mature.

Another crucial step is to stop shaming our children. This is often the most difficult change because our childhood experiences shape how we parent. If we experienced shame growing up, we are likely to use it with our kids. While shame is a topic that deserves extensive exploration, the most important thing to recognize is how easily we slip into shaming our children during correction or discipline. Those are the moments when shame typically emerges.

We must rethink how we talk to our children when disciplining and correcting them. Please don’t misunderstand; discipline and correction are critical to a child's healthy development, but how we discipline and correct can be damaging and counterproductive to our goals. Why is this so critical for this topic? When children see pornography, whether on accident or purpose, they already feel uncomfortable and likely have a sense of shame. If we respond to their disclosure with additional shame, it may be the last time they disclose, effectively putting them in a downward shame spiral that is the breeding ground for additional pornography consumption.

The third step to open communication is to set safe spaces. Safe spaces are places our children associate with positive, essential discussions. These spaces imprint in the child’s brain and can create a sense of safety that allows them to open up. They can be anywhere—a specific room, in a car, at a park. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that they associate that place as a spot where they talk with their parent(s) about important things. It is helpful if a parent consciously and proactively picks spots for open dialogue. This sets a pattern that is familiar and safe for the child.

Following these three communication steps will help us overcome the seemingly insurmountable odds of maintaining open communication with our children. It also sets the parent up to create a plan with the child for what they will do when, not if, they are exposed to pornography.

Address Early Childhood Trauma to Prevent Pornography Consumption

Another key to reducing the risk of purposeful consumption is to help your child process early childhood traumatic experiences. We all have them. These experiences impact some more than others, and sometimes, the impacts can become debilitating.

Think of traumatic impacts as the result of an experience where we did not feel safe. When we have a traumatic experience, and it is followed by additional insecurity or dismissive responses, the experiences can leave an imprint in the survival systems of our brains, leading to trauma symptoms. Anytime we are in an environment that reminds us of the original traumatic experience, our physical senses instantaneously alert our biological survival systems, and those survival systems activate our stress responses in the brain and body. This is called a trigger.

If we have too many triggers and, thus, an abnormal amount of stress responses, our brain and body become maladaptive and start looking for a coping tool to create a sense of safety. This is often the birthplace of compulsive and addictive behaviors. We use these compulsive or addictive behaviors to calm the stress response. Our brain and body begin to crave these behaviors, and pornography can be one of these.

Because of the neurochemical release that accompanies pornography consumption, our brain may associate our triggers with a craving for that consumption, and, as a result, the purposeful pursuit of pornography begins.

So, what does a child need? The child requires a parent who will honestly identify traumatic experiences and help them healthily process those experiences. This is very hard for a parent to do because the traumatic experience is often associated with a sense of failure as a parent. The parent(s) tell themselves, “I did not protect them.”; “It is my fault this happened,” or the worst one of all, “I caused the trauma.” When a parent has this dialogue going through their head, dismissing or ignoring the hard work needed to help a child process their experiences is easy.

So, what is my child’s early childhood trauma, and how do I recognize it? The answer to this question can be as different as the child it applies to. A parent must become an astute observer. They watch moments when their children show insecurity or act out. Observing these moments, they look for patterns and connect the dots across these behaviors. Once they identify the patterns, the parent can help the child process traumatic experiences better.

Not all traumatic experiences are created equal. Some experiences are so consistently traumatic that a parent does not need to guess why their child struggles. The big three that almost always produce a significant trauma response are physical abuse, sexual abuse, and neglect. These are closely followed by several other significant traumatic experiences, such as the death of a loved one, divorce, bullying, and emotional abuse. These significant traumatic experiences often require professional help. As parent(s), we should be quick to engage professionals when our children go through these types of experiences.

When we identify our children’s traumatic experiences and help them process these experiences (often with the help of professionals), we reduce the likelihood that our children will develop long-term triggers and maladaptive responses, which, in turn, reduces the possibility that they will use pornography as a coping tool.

Normalizing a Healthy Approach to Sex

Nothing says awkward more for a child or a parent than discussing sex. But we must embrace the uncomfortable and do it anyway. Our sexual expressions are essential to us as humans. They are beautiful and healthy when approached with the respect that they deserve. But, as with most things wonderful, they can also be abused and put us in harm’s way. Because of this risk of harm, parents often choose not to breach the topic of sex with their children, or if they do, discuss sex primarily using negative language.

Either of these approaches, silence or using negative language, tends to create sexual shame. It tells the child that this is not a safe topic. It is taboo. This leads children to quench their curiosity through internet searches, discussions with friends, or observation of popular media. Each of those alternative methods is fraught with danger and misinformation.

For this reason, it is critical that the parent(s) open dialogue about sex and sexuality in age-appropriate ways. Many resources guide parents on what to discuss at each stage of a child’s development. And it should start when they are a toddler. For example, a perfect discussion with a toddler is about privacy and boundaries. You can also talk with a toddler about healthy expressions, such as cuddling with a safe adult or giving hugs when they want. This age-appropriate dialogue progresses as the child grows and, as a result, normalizes a healthy approach to sex and sexuality.

There may be some awkwardness even in a family with healthy dialogue. Still, when a child hits a critical point, such as an accidental exposure to pornography or even a purposeful one, the openness will significantly increase the likelihood the child will discuss it and process the exposure with their parent(s), thus giving the parent(s) the opportunity to reinforce a positive and healthy view of sex.

A Reason to Hope – Empowering Parents Against Pornography Risks

These risk reducers, open communication, addressing traumatic experiences, and normalizing sexual conversations are critical for parents. Otherwise, you leave things up to chance, and the odds are not in your favor. But these keys also need a word of caution. You can do everything by the book and still have a child choose to pursue pornography purposely. This is why they are called risk reducers and not risk eliminators. Regardless, a parent should have hope that their plans and efforts will make a difference. As an engaged parent, you influence your child's choices more than any other person.

Pornography is rampant. Our kids will likely be exposed. Empowered parents willing to educate themselves, invest the time and energy, and approach the risk with commitment can make a difference for their children. They can reduce the risk that pornography will become a long-lasting, detrimental challenge.

About the Author

Image

Chris Yadon, MPA

Managing Director
As Saprea’s first employee and Executive Director, Chris Yadon collaborated closely with the organization’s founders to launch and establish its operations in 2015. Chris now serves as the Managing Director, leading the organization’s public efforts to drive societal change around the issue of child sexual abuse. He has previously held executive leadership positions for start-up tech and healthcare organizations. Chris is committed to driving broad societal change to address child sexual abuse and uses his influence as a thought leader and strategist to inspire others to take action. He firmly believes we can collectively create a better future for our children. A sought-after speaker, Chris inspires audiences with timely topics such as overcoming emotional numbing by learning how to feel again, protecting children from child sexual abuse in a hypersexualized world, and how to intentionally drive societal change. He has been featured across several media platforms where he is requested to contribute as an industry leader and subject matter expert. Chris received a BA and an MPA degree from Brigham Young University. He is the grateful father of six children: three boys and three girls. He and his wife, Christy, have been married for 28 years.

Recent blogs

35384:full
Conversation Prompts for Parents: Talking About Sensitive Topics
Starting conversations about online safety and sextortion with teens can feel difficult. These practical conversation prompts help parents discuss sensitive topics, recognize red flags, and build trust so young people feel safe asking for help when they need it.
Read this article
35379:full
Common Platforms Where Sextortion Begins
Sextortion often begins on platforms teens use most, including social media, gaming chats, livestreams, and anonymous messaging apps. Understanding these high-risk spaces and teaching young people to recognize red flags can help parents protect them from online predators.
Read this article
34449:full
What Stops Children from Reporting Grooming: Understanding Barriers to Disclosure
Learn why children and teens often don’t report grooming, the manipulative tactics abusers use, and how caregivers can create safe, supportive environments to help survivors speak up and heal.
Read this article
SEE ALL blogs

Breaking the Link Between Child Sexual Abuse and Incarceration: A Path to Healing

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Incarcerated woman in red with hair pulled back looking out cell window.

Saprea > Blog > All Blogs > Breaking the Link Between Child Sexual Abuse and Incarceration: A Path to Healing

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Breaking the Link Between Child Sexual Abuse and Incarceration: A Path to Healing

“Clank!” The chilling sound of a jail cell locking is familiar from countless movies. But what if it wasn’t just a cinematic moment? What if it was your reality? You sit on an uncomfortable bed, thoughts racing through your mind as you ask yourself, “How did I get here?” For too many survivors of child sexual abuse, incarceration isn’t fiction—it’s their reality. Many incarcerated women ponder how they got there, without a clear answer. Maybe our society would benefit from a more thoughtful approach for how childhood trauma can pave a pathway to incarceration, prompting us to provide healing programs for survivors of child sexual abuse.

The Link Between Child Abuse and Incarceration

Research reveals a striking pattern among incarcerated women: up to 66% report experiencing childhood sexual abuse,1 more than double the rate found in the general female population (31%).2 While multiple factors contribute to incarceration, this dramatic statistical disparity demands attention. The consistency and magnitude of this relationship across studies point to childhood sexual abuse as a significant risk factor in women's pathways to imprisonment. As the saying goes, “Correlation is not causation.” But this level of high correlation should give us pause.

How Trauma Shapes Coping Mechanisms

The line between child sexual abuse and incarceration is not hard to draw. When a child experiences abuse, their safety is violated. The natural response from their brain is to seek safety. The survival part of their brain will not discern between constructive and destructive coping behaviors. As a natural consequence, a child may attach to harmful or maladaptive coping behaviors such as substance use, eating disorders, or suicidal ideation. This becomes more likely as they grow into their teenage and adult years. Using substances as an example, the survivor, now addicted, resorts to criminal activity to feed the addiction, eventually finding themselves involved with the justice system.
Image

Learn More About How Trauma Impacts Childhood Development

The effects of Child Sexual Abuse

Breaking the Cycle Through Healing Programs

We have reason to believe that if we can reduce the number of girls who experience child sexual abuse and provide healing programs for survivors, we could reduce the number of incarcerated women. In addition, if we can help incarcerated women heal from their child sexual abuse, we have reason to believe that we can reduce recidivism through trauma healing. Each of these assumptions will need to be studied extensively, but until then, we can work with the data we have to design promising interventions.

Creating Opportunities for Healing Within the System

Research reveals a critical window of opportunity within correctional facilities themselves. One study noted that for some survivors—approximately one-fifth of incarcerated women—their first disclosure of childhood sexual abuse occurs within an institutional setting. This finding suggests that correctional facilities may serve as an unexpected but important venue for initiating trauma recovery work.

The timing of these institutional disclosures is particularly significant. While many survivors carry their experiences in silence for years—with 45.8% delaying disclosure for a year or more3—even the environment like a correctional facility, combined with appropriate support services, may provide the security needed to begin addressing long-buried trauma. Rather than viewing these facilities solely as punitive environments, we can recognize their potential as spaces where healing can begin.

This revelation also underscores the importance of ensuring that correctional staff are adequately trained in trauma-informed approaches and that facilities maintain robust mental health services.4 When a woman chooses to disclose abuse—perhaps for the first time in her life—the system must be prepared to respond with appropriate support and resources. This preparation could transform what might otherwise be a missed opportunity into a crucial first step toward breaking the cycle of trauma and incarceration.

A Scalable Solution for Incarcerated Women

Starting in 2019, our team at Saprea piloted various healing programs within women’s facilities. This has been a challenging journey. We have seen good, measurable success with the curricula, but the implementation has been difficult to scale until recently.

Working with our partner, Edovo, Saprea deployed ten curriculum modules complete with comprehension testing to 1134 prison and jail facilities across the United States. In the first month of deployment, over 10,500 incarcerated women accessed the curricula, over 7,500 completed at least one module, and over 2,800 finished the tenth module. This scalable approach allows Saprea to conduct rigorous outcome-based research to determine whether our curriculum, which works in other settings, can reduce post-traumatic stress symptoms and enhance coping skills in this underserved, deserving population.

Hope for the Future: Expanding Healing Efforts

With these promising advances, the best is yet to come. As we expand healing efforts to survivors, including incarcerated men, we give them a chance to rewrite their stories and return to society healthy and ready to contribute. Breaking the cycle of child sexual abuse and incarceration starts with awareness and action. I imagine a world where the clank of a jail cell is less of a reality for survivors of child sexual abuse and can only be imagined by them through the fictional portrayals of Hollywood.

Share this post to help raise awareness and explore our healing programs for survivors here.

About the Author

Image

Chris Yadon, MPA

Managing Director
As Saprea’s first employee and Executive Director, Chris Yadon collaborated closely with the organization’s founders to launch and establish its operations in 2015. Chris now serves as the Managing Director, leading the organization’s public efforts to drive societal change around the issue of child sexual abuse. He has previously held executive leadership positions for start-up tech and healthcare organizations. Chris is committed to driving broad societal change to address child sexual abuse and uses his influence as a thought leader and strategist to inspire others to take action. He firmly believes we can collectively create a better future for our children. A sought-after speaker, Chris inspires audiences with timely topics such as overcoming emotional numbing by learning how to feel again, protecting children from child sexual abuse in a hypersexualized world, and how to intentionally drive societal change. He has been featured across several media platforms where he is requested to contribute as an industry leader and subject matter expert. Chris received a BA and an MPA degree from Brigham Young University. He is the grateful father of six children: three boys and three girls. He and his wife, Christy, have been married for 28 years.

Recent blogs

35384:full
Conversation Prompts for Parents: Talking About Sensitive Topics
Starting conversations about online safety and sextortion with teens can feel difficult. These practical conversation prompts help parents discuss sensitive topics, recognize red flags, and build trust so young people feel safe asking for help when they need it.
Read this article
35379:full
Common Platforms Where Sextortion Begins
Sextortion often begins on platforms teens use most, including social media, gaming chats, livestreams, and anonymous messaging apps. Understanding these high-risk spaces and teaching young people to recognize red flags can help parents protect them from online predators.
Read this article
34449:full
What Stops Children from Reporting Grooming: Understanding Barriers to Disclosure
Learn why children and teens often don’t report grooming, the manipulative tactics abusers use, and how caregivers can create safe, supportive environments to help survivors speak up and heal.
Read this article
SEE ALL blogs

Why Parents Don’t See Child Sexual Abuse as a Problem—And How Proximity Can Fix It

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Mom and daughter sitting on couch together both holding electronic devices. Mom is looking over daughter's shoulder and smiling. Daughter is holding out device so her mom can see what she is doing.

Saprea > Blog > All Blogs > Why Parents Don’t See Child Sexual Abuse as a Problem—And How Proximity Can Fix It

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Why Parents Don’t See Child Sexual Abuse as a Problem—And How Proximity Can Fix It

Eighteen years ago, my wife Christy and I attended a parenting conference. At the time, our children were eight and six, and we were focused on learning how to be better parents. The conference was largely unmemorable except for one passing comment by one of the presenters. He said research is showing that the average age a boy will first be exposed to sexually explicit content is between nine and eleven, so if you want to be the first person to introduce the topic of sex, you better talk before that age. I thought about all that could go wrong with him learning about sex from other sources, but the most concerning risk was the potential for child sexual abuse.

I felt a pit in my stomach. I didn’t want my eight-year-old son to learn about sex the way I did – pieced together through media, jokes from friends, and a grossly inadequate awkward health class, but I could not imagine having “the talk” with him as an eight-year-old. As I struggled with what to do with these back-and-forth, conflicting thoughts, ultimately, proximity created urgency, and Christy and I decided to have “the talk” with our son.

Understanding Proximity and Urgency

Before sharing the rest of the story, I pause to emphasize that sex, generally, and child sexual abuse, specifically, are uncomfortable topics for most parents. Yet, they are critical to address with kids. Both proximity and urgency are essential in influencing and motivating behavior to overcome this discomfort and protect children from abuse.

By proximity, I mean a sense of closeness or being near to an issue. Without this sense of proximity, we often ignore significant problems, regardless of their severity. While each can stand alone, they often work together, with proximity fostering a stronger sense of urgency.

Why Parents Often Miss the Problem of Child Sexual Abuse

In my work addressing child sexual abuse, I see this phenomenon daily. Despite extensive research highlighting that child sexual abuse is a significant issue in every community, many parents and caregivers dismiss it as a distant problem, believing it happens to someone else, somewhere else. This dissonant, apathetic response is not because parents do not view child sexual abuse as horrific but because they view child sexual abuse as distant.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other researchers, about 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 10 boys experience child sexual abuse in the United States.1, 2 Yet, a survey in my home state revealed that 65.4% of respondents—mostly parents—either disagreed (40.8%) or were neutral (24.6%) when asked if child sexual abuse is a problem in their immediate community (e.g., neighborhood, family, faith group, club, business).3

Only 34.6% of respondents acknowledged that child sexual abuse is an issue in their community. How can this be? Despite extensive discussions by researchers, news outlets, public health agencies, and nonprofits, a significant disconnect remains. Systems change expert John Kotter insightfully said, “Never underestimate the magnitude of the forces that reinforce complacency and that help maintain the status quo.”4 Perhaps we have underestimated the desire for humans to look away from something we do not want to face. Put another way, the lack of proximity reinforces our complacency.

What Is Proximity, and How Can It Help?

Survivors of child sexual abuse experience a significant amount of shame and stigma. This shame and stigma drive silence and secrecy. Survivors do not often tell their stories; if they do, they speak with fear of judgment.5 Most commonly, they share in very limited, closed circles. As a result, you and I interact with survivors of child sexual abuse often without having any idea what they have experienced in their past. I am not talking about acquaintances or casual friends. I am talking about close friends and even family. Yes, even within families, survivors often choose not to share about their child sexual abuse. The result? Most people do not think the issue is proximate.

What about urgency? When a threat feels proximate, urgency naturally follows. We respond, and we respond quickly. In the case of child sexual abuse, if I learn that my loved ones, those closest to me, experienced child sexual abuse, I will feel the urgency to help them heal and protect those I love, especially my children, from going through the same thing. Said differently, proximity leads to urgency.

Research supports this perspective. A study by experts at Johns Hopkins University suggest that when parents are actively engaged in prevention education, the risk of child sexual abuse can significantly decrease.6 This engagement is driven by a sense of proximity—understanding that the threat is real and close to home.

As we understand this connection, we can quickly see how stigmatizing child sexual abuse and shaming survivors into silence not only harms the survivor but creates environments that allow abuse to continue uninterrupted. As long as parents feel the risk is distant, child sexual abuse will continue to impact every community at higher rates than if it were confronted directly.

Turning Proximity into Urgent Action

Reflecting on the experience with my eight-year-old son, it becomes evident how proximity and urgency intersect to drive meaningful change. The presenter's reference to research on early exposure to sexually explicit content, coupled with firsthand accounts from loved ones, brought the issue uncomfortably close to home. This proximity created a sense of urgency that compelled my wife and me to initiate "the talk" despite our apprehensions. Our urgency was motivated by the proximate risk to our son, and that urgency overcame our conflicting thoughts about whether that moment was the right time.

I wish I could say I nailed that “big talk,” but like most things in parenting, the first time didn’t go so well. Yet eighteen years later, my twenty-six-year-old son has a healthy perspective about his sexuality - formed by hundreds of subsequent “little talks” with us as parents. Like me, he also heard about sex through media, jokes from friends, and a grossly inadequate, awkward health class, but he was equipped to handle it because he had our balancing voice. Proximity and urgency had met, changing our parenting behavior when he was eight years old.

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Reduce the Risk of Child Sexual Abuse

When parents are actively engaged in prevention education, the risk of child sexual abuse can significantly decrease.
Start the Conversation
Any significant change, whether a broad societal issue like child sexual abuse or an uncomfortable talk with my eight-year-old, requires urgency to motivate new patterns of behavior. Child sexual abuse is more prevelant in our lives than we might admit. Creating urgency through proximity can protect our kids. Start the conversation with your loved ones today and explore more parenting resources here.

About the Author

Image

Chris Yadon, MPA

Managing Director
As Saprea’s first employee and Executive Director, Chris Yadon collaborated closely with the organization’s founders to launch and establish its operations in 2015. Chris now serves as the Managing Director, leading the organization’s public efforts to drive societal change around the issue of child sexual abuse. He has previously held executive leadership positions for start-up tech and healthcare organizations. Chris is committed to driving broad societal change to address child sexual abuse and uses his influence as a thought leader and strategist to inspire others to take action. He firmly believes we can collectively create a better future for our children. A sought-after speaker, Chris inspires audiences with timely topics such as overcoming emotional numbing by learning how to feel again, protecting children from child sexual abuse in a hypersexualized world, and how to intentionally drive societal change. He has been featured across several media platforms where he is requested to contribute as an industry leader and subject matter expert. Chris received a BA and an MPA degree from Brigham Young University. He is the grateful father of six children: three boys and three girls. He and his wife, Christy, have been married for 28 years.

Recent blogs

35384:full
Conversation Prompts for Parents: Talking About Sensitive Topics
Starting conversations about online safety and sextortion with teens can feel difficult. These practical conversation prompts help parents discuss sensitive topics, recognize red flags, and build trust so young people feel safe asking for help when they need it.
Read this article
35379:full
Common Platforms Where Sextortion Begins
Sextortion often begins on platforms teens use most, including social media, gaming chats, livestreams, and anonymous messaging apps. Understanding these high-risk spaces and teaching young people to recognize red flags can help parents protect them from online predators.
Read this article
34449:full
What Stops Children from Reporting Grooming: Understanding Barriers to Disclosure
Learn why children and teens often don’t report grooming, the manipulative tactics abusers use, and how caregivers can create safe, supportive environments to help survivors speak up and heal.
Read this article
SEE ALL blogs

Child Sex Trafficking Is Personal, Not Political

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Saprea > Blog > All Blogs > Child Sex Trafficking Is Personal, Not Political

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Child Sex Trafficking Is Personal, Not Political

By: Chris Yadon, Laurieann Thorpe, Jake Neeley

The current surge of awareness and attention on child sex trafficking is both encouraging and disheartening. It is encouraging because we, as a society, are finally acknowledging this horrific practice. It is disheartening because our current dialogue about the issue of child sex trafficking is inconsistent with the most prevalent risks in our nation and local communities. This dialogue fails to recognize the realities of how, when, and where most children are trafficked for sex. To make it worse, individuals are choosing to politicize the issue with the intent to gain power. Leveraging a non-political issue for political gain is another form of exploitation and can do additional harm, including compounding existing trauma, to child sex trafficking survivors.

Our common humanity calls on us to act when we become aware of any injustice. Child sex trafficking being used as a political tool is one of those injustices. Rather than letting ourselves buy into the dialogue placing child sex trafficking into the political sphere, let’s focus on ways to understand the realities of the issue and protect children against traffickers and sexual exploitation.

In order to protect children against the risks of child sex trafficking, we as a society need to move to productive dialogue around the issue, capitalize on the positives of the current awareness, and take effective preventative action.

Move to Productive Dialogue 

If we want to make the dialogue around the issue productive, it needs to be based on concrete research-based facts. For example, the majority of child sex trafficking victims in the U.S. were trafficked by a member of their family and nearly 46% were trafficked by a parent/guardian.1

This context is critical to understanding the issue. It prompts us to focus our protective efforts and dialogue away from strangers and abductions and toward strengthening homes and families. Of course, abductions do occur with trafficking, but they are rare relative to the overall issue. Focusing solely on protecting against abductions makes us more likely to miss the much more common forms of trafficking happening all around us. When we understand that child sex traffickers are more likely to target children close to them, the signs and warnings that we watch for will shift. When we are watching for the most likely scenarios, we are much more likely to be prepared to spot and help child sex trafficking victims through the proper channels.

A second researched-based fact that can guide productive dialogue is that 87% of youth who are trafficked for sex have experienced sexual abuse prior to being trafficked.2 As the saying goes, correlation is not causation, but when correlations are as high as 87%, we need to pay attention. This realization drives our efforts to address not only child sex trafficking but other types of child sexual abuse. With earlier interventions, we can better prevent not only the initial abuse a child may experience, but also lower the risk of revictimization through sexual exploitation and other harms. Many survivors of childhood sexual abuse could be spared the lasting impacts of additional trauma if healing and protective resources were more readily available.

Promoting dialogue based around research will allow us to address real issues that survivors and those at risk of child sex trafficking face. For more research-based facts to guide your discussions, you can read through Saprea’s research brief.

Capitalize on the Positives of the Current Awareness 

With facts in hand, we are better prepared to discuss the issue of child sex trafficking. The next question is how can we utilize the positives of the current awareness levels around the issue? Discussions around child sex trafficking are rapidly increasing, and it is vital that we use that awareness to cement the issue in society’s mind. Three things can help us be successful in using current awareness levels to benefit trafficking survivors, victims, and children.

01

Focus on the issue, not on the politics.

We must do our best to not get sucked into making discussions around child sex trafficking political. Instead, we can focus on the fact that people of all different beliefs and ideologies want to protect children. We may disagree on how to do it, but we agree that children should be protected and defended. Redirect conversations you hear back to the real issue: how to protect children against the risks of trafficking.

02

Acknowledge the proximity to home.

Use the facts to talk about the risks in your own neighborhood and community. As humans, we often find it easier to focus on problems in other places affecting other people. It is much more difficult to accept that our own children are at risk of exploitation and abuse. But child sexual abuse is happening in every community in America, and we can best protect children from traffickers by acknowledging that the risk of trafficking exists everywhere. The Malouf Foundation offers a free, one-hour online training designed to help you recognize the signs of sex trafficking in your community.

03

Discuss the issue personally, not just online.

While this topic should be discussed online, in-person discussions are also critical to healthy dialogue and accurate awareness. Online conversations can easily become polarized and gloss over the nuances of the risk, often causing unnecessary harm to survivors already suffering the trauma of sexual abuse and trafficking. The issue is complex, and dialogue requires time. These deeper discussions are usually best held face-to-face, in person with family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, etc. Help create environments where people feel comfortable and safe asking difficult questions and discussing the issue.

Take Effective Preventative Action 

The natural response to awareness of a problem is the desire to act. The desire to do something is built into our biology; failure to act often creates incongruence with our beliefs. We feel more fulfilled and confident when we answer this biological call to act. While the desire to act comes easily, we often aren’t sure where to begin when it comes to acting against difficult issues like child sex trafficking.

The best place to take action is within your family and immediate community. Once you have learned about the issue, learn how to protect the children within your own communities and educate others on how they too can help. The top five principles that can protect children from traffickers and sexual abuse are:

01

Assess risky situations and practice navigating them.

02

Teach how to set and respect healthy boundaries.

03

Keep the lines of communication open.

04

Discuss sexual development.

05

Model and develop emotional well-being.

Usually, parents or primary caregivers are best equipped to teach and apply these principles. Families can create safety plans, establish and communicate their values, and share the plan with those who have roles in their child’s life. Prevent Child Abuse Utah has a sample safety plan available at its website and parents can create their own from a template.

Of course, communities can and should support the family in prevention and education efforts, but parents and caregivers must take on the primary role in protecting children against sex traffickers and abuse. Yes, protecting other people’s children is positive and noble, but focusing on others when our own homes and neighborhoods are full of risk is one of the great ironies of our current response to this issue. Protect who you can and protect where you are now. Help others to protect their own by educating on the topic and encouraging productive (and accurate) dialogue around the issue of child sex trafficking. Let’s address these misunderstandings, shift the dialogue, and do better for our children.

Additional Resources 

Finally, if you see something suspicious, call local law enforcement immediately to make a report. In addition, you may also report a tip to the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888 or text “info” to 233733. You should never engage with a potential trafficker or violent situation. This could put you and the person being trafficked in danger.

About the authors

  • Chris Yadon
    Managing Director of Saprea
  • Laurieann Thorpe
    Executive Director of Prevent Child Abuse Utah
  • Jake Neeley
    Executive Director of The Malouf Foundation

Each of these organizations is dedicated to ending child sexual abuse.

Recent blogs

35384:full
Conversation Prompts for Parents: Talking About Sensitive Topics
Starting conversations about online safety and sextortion with teens can feel difficult. These practical conversation prompts help parents discuss sensitive topics, recognize red flags, and build trust so young people feel safe asking for help when they need it.
Read this article
35379:full
Common Platforms Where Sextortion Begins
Sextortion often begins on platforms teens use most, including social media, gaming chats, livestreams, and anonymous messaging apps. Understanding these high-risk spaces and teaching young people to recognize red flags can help parents protect them from online predators.
Read this article
34449:full
What Stops Children from Reporting Grooming: Understanding Barriers to Disclosure
Learn why children and teens often don’t report grooming, the manipulative tactics abusers use, and how caregivers can create safe, supportive environments to help survivors speak up and heal.
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Protection Against Sextortion Starts with Understanding the Threat

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Saprea > Blog > All Blogs > Protection Against Sextortion Starts with Understanding the Threat

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Protection Against Sextortion Starts with Understanding the Threat

Just over 25 years ago, I held my oldest child for the first time. It was an amazing feeling as I was flooded with intense and immediate love. It didn’t take long before that love was replaced with the realization that I was expected to nurture and provide for this new little human. My worry nearly equaled the intensity of my love. How was I going to raise a decent human being, nurture him in a positive way, and protect him from everything he would experience? These questions can be all consuming for a new parent. Fortunately love won out as our journey began together.

Any parent or primary caregiver has a list of things they do to protect their children. I am not talking about a written list, but an intuitive list that sits in their minds and guides how they raise their children. Generally, things move on and off that list based on the parent or caregiver’s past experiences, but occasionally parents face a new threat no previous generation of parents had to experience.

Sexual extortion (sextortion) is one of these threats.

Sextortion is a form of child sexual abuse where a victim is threatened or blackmailed to meet the specific demands of a perpetrator. In these cases, either the threat or the demand is sexual in nature.

Most commonly the perpetrator threatens to share sexual content about the victim (either real or faked) with the purpose of obtaining additional sexual content, sexual activity, money, or other favors from the victim.

Protecting against sextortion starts with understanding the threat. Although perpetrators gain access to extortable content through many methods, sextortion often starts with sexting or digital sharing of sexual material. It’s important to understand that the child or youth may have chosen to share the sexual material, but once shared, the material can quickly get into other people’s hands. This decision may have been influenced by a variety of factors, such as peer pressure, relationship expectations, curiosity, exploration, bullying, coercion, or a desire to impress or be included. Here are just a few of many statistics that can help us understand the threat.

  • 46.8% of youth report having received a sexted image.1
  • Data from police indicate that 90-100% of nonconsensual-distribution offenders were other youth.2
  • 72% of youth who receive a forwarded sexted image don’t report it.1
  • Only 2.6% told their parents they were being victimized.1
  • A quarter of youth justify their forwarding of a sexted image as a joke.1

Once we understand the threat, we can turn our attention to principles that can help us minimize the threat and protect our child. Here are five of the best things parents and caregivers can do to reduce the risk of sextortion:

01

Assess risky situations and practice navigating them.

The developing brain of a child and youth is not yet wired to effectively assess risky situations especially as it relates to sexual activity. We should not expect children and youth to navigate sexual activity decisions without significant adult support. For this reason, parents and caregivers should walk through various risky situations—online and offline—that could lead to sextortion and practice with the child how they might navigate the situations.

02

Teach how to set and respect healthy boundaries.

If I could only pick one principle to teach my children about risk reduction, this would be the principle. Learning how to set and hold boundaries is a life skill that pays huge dividends. For sextortion specifically, boundaries help children and youth reduce the chance that they will have sexual material available to be sextorted. Boundaries also impede perpetrators if by chance they do obtain sexual material. As a parent or caregiver, you get a double dose of protection by teaching one principle.

03

Keep the lines of communication open.

Learning to respond instead of react directly combats the shame and stigma that often prevent a victim from seeking help. A parent who can respond to a child or youth when they hear difficult things makes it more likely that the child or youth will keep the lines of communication open. Learning to respond instead of react is not easy to do when you are dealing with big emotions or serious issues. Practice responding to circumstances where your child might disclose sexting or sextortion.

04

Discuss sexual development and healthy intimacy.

Proactive big talks mixed in with a lot of responsive little talks about sexual development arm your children with an understanding of what is normal and healthy when it comes to their sexual development. This makes it more likely for them to recognize unhealthy relationships. This also helps them elevate unhealthy relationships to their parents or caregivers, allowing an opportunity for the parent or caregiver to intervene. If your child is old enough to have technology in their hands it is time to have the big talk about sextortion.

05

Model and develop emotional well-being.

Children and youth most often model what they see. Perpetrators of sextortion are looking for vulnerabilities. A child or youth who demonstrates emotional well-being reduces their risk. This is not a fix-all. Sextortion can happen to anyone, even a child or youth who is emotionally well, but risk can be reduced as we model well-being in ourselves and develop well-being in our children and youth.

Sextortion sounds scary to a parent or caregiver. And it is. Educating ourselves about how to reduce the risk allows us to combat that fear through action. We can reduce risk. We can empower our children and youth to build healthy relationships, avoid or navigate risky situations, and come to us for help if something does happen. As I reflect back on my 25 years of parenting, I can confidently say that combatting risks with knowledge, understanding, and actions allows me to focus on the joy and love of parenting. Let’s let love win out.

For additional prevention resources visit saprea.org.

About the author

Image

Chris Yadon, MPA

Managing Director
As Saprea’s first employee and Executive Director, Chris Yadon collaborated closely with the organization’s founders to launch and establish its operations in 2015. Chris now serves as the Managing Director, leading the organization’s public efforts to drive societal change around the issue of child sexual abuse. He has previously held executive leadership positions for start-up tech and healthcare organizations. Chris is committed to driving broad societal change to address child sexual abuse and uses his influence as a thought leader and strategist to inspire others to take action. He firmly believes we can collectively create a better future for our children. A sought-after speaker, Chris inspires audiences with timely topics such as overcoming emotional numbing by learning how to feel again, protecting children from child sexual abuse in a hypersexualized world, and how to intentionally drive societal change. He has been featured across several media platforms where he is requested to contribute as an industry leader and subject matter expert. Chris received a BA and an MPA degree from Brigham Young University. He is the grateful father of six children: three boys and three girls. He and his wife, Christy, have been married for 28 years.

Recent blogs

35384:full
Conversation Prompts for Parents: Talking About Sensitive Topics
Starting conversations about online safety and sextortion with teens can feel difficult. These practical conversation prompts help parents discuss sensitive topics, recognize red flags, and build trust so young people feel safe asking for help when they need it.
Read this article
35379:full
Common Platforms Where Sextortion Begins
Sextortion often begins on platforms teens use most, including social media, gaming chats, livestreams, and anonymous messaging apps. Understanding these high-risk spaces and teaching young people to recognize red flags can help parents protect them from online predators.
Read this article
34449:full
What Stops Children from Reporting Grooming: Understanding Barriers to Disclosure
Learn why children and teens often don’t report grooming, the manipulative tactics abusers use, and how caregivers can create safe, supportive environments to help survivors speak up and heal.
Read this article
SEE ALL blogs

Innocent Not Ignorant: The Importance of Little Talks

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Innocent Not Ignorant: The Importance of Little Talks

Guest blog post written by Chris Yadon, Managing Director

Have you ever had a parent victory moment? It is one of those times when your kid does something that shows they are listening to you – that you are having a positive impact on them. Your chest swells with all sorts of positive feelings.

I had one of those moments the other day. I was watching a college football game with my 10-year-old son. A commercial came on about erectile dysfunction. There was a line in the commercial that encouraged you to check with your doctor to decide if your heart is healthy enough to have sex. My son looked over at me with a shy look and a little grin and said, “Dad, are they talking about THAT?” With a warm smile, I said, “Yes, they are talking about THAT.”

You may be thinking to yourself, “How is that a victory? It just sounds uncomfortable.” It was a victory moment because my son felt comfortable enough with me to engage in a little talk about healthy sexual development. He was a little shy about it, but he wasn’t ashamed or afraid. At that moment, I knew that, at least to this point in his life, we had open communication about sexuality.

Consider the alternative. Let’s say he didn’t feel comfortable. At age 10, he’s probably heard something about sex from somebody, somewhere. Even if he doesn’t understand the details, he knows enough to be curious. That curiosity could easily drive him to ask a friend about sex or, even worse, ask Google. The last thing I want is him googling erectile dysfunction or sex. That’s a disaster waiting to happen.

In past generations, keeping our kids ignorant of sex was a possibility. One might argue that the best way to defend their innocence is to maintain their ignorance until they are older. But that’s not possible in our current world. Our kids are going to run across sexuality somewhere. Maybe it will be on the playground, maybe while doing a school assignment online, or maybe while watching college football on a Saturday afternoon.

Kids will turn to parents who have had ongoing, age-appropriate dialogue with their kids about sexuality. The parents will be there in those impromptu moments to provide accurate, healthy information about sexual development. And, in time, it won’t be awkward or confusing for them or their kids.

One of the best ways to defend the innocence of our children is to give age-appropriate education through a lot of little talks. This gives them a sense of safety and confidence. Defending a child’s ignorance is not defending innocence.

About the author

Image

Chris Yadon, MPA

Managing Director
As Saprea’s first employee and Executive Director, Chris Yadon collaborated closely with the organization’s founders to launch and establish its operations in 2015. Chris now serves as the Managing Director, leading the organization’s public efforts to drive societal change around the issue of child sexual abuse. He has previously held executive leadership positions for start-up tech and healthcare organizations. Chris is committed to driving broad societal change to address child sexual abuse and uses his influence as a thought leader and strategist to inspire others to take action. He firmly believes we can collectively create a better future for our children. A sought-after speaker, Chris inspires audiences with timely topics such as overcoming emotional numbing by learning how to feel again, protecting children from child sexual abuse in a hypersexualized world, and how to intentionally drive societal change. He has been featured across several media platforms where he is requested to contribute as an industry leader and subject matter expert. Chris received a BA and an MPA degree from Brigham Young University. He is the grateful father of six children: three boys and three girls. He and his wife, Christy, have been married for 28 years.

Recent blogs

35384:full
Conversation Prompts for Parents: Talking About Sensitive Topics
Starting conversations about online safety and sextortion with teens can feel difficult. These practical conversation prompts help parents discuss sensitive topics, recognize red flags, and build trust so young people feel safe asking for help when they need it.
Read this article
35379:full
Common Platforms Where Sextortion Begins
Sextortion often begins on platforms teens use most, including social media, gaming chats, livestreams, and anonymous messaging apps. Understanding these high-risk spaces and teaching young people to recognize red flags can help parents protect them from online predators.
Read this article
34449:full
What Stops Children from Reporting Grooming: Understanding Barriers to Disclosure
Learn why children and teens often don’t report grooming, the manipulative tactics abusers use, and how caregivers can create safe, supportive environments to help survivors speak up and heal.
Read this article
SEE ALL blogs

The Saprea Retreat is for You. Yes! I Am Talking to You.

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Saprea > Blog > All Blogs > The Saprea Retreat is for You. Yes! I Am Talking to You.

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The Saprea Retreat is for You. Yes! I Am Talking to You.

We face an interesting challenge at Saprea. We designed our services for a specific segment of women, but those women often think our services are for someone else.

Let me explain. When we started planning the Saprea Retreat, we specifically wanted to create a place for the “Forgotten Survivor”—the woman who is doing okay in life; the woman who has figured out how to cope with her abuse; the woman who is high functioning; but the woman who is still affected, often deeply, by what happened so many years ago.

We wanted this retreat because there are a lot of services for the woman in crisis, but there is virtually nothing for the resilient woman who has figured out a way to cope with the crisis yet still feels many effects. We know that she still deals with the impact of her abuse, and, despite her tremendous efforts, she still feels broken.

We often hear from participants that they almost didn’t apply because they felt the spot should go to someone else, someone more “deserving.” We hear statements like:

  • “I’m doing okay. Let someone else come that is really struggling.”
  • “My abuse wasn’t as bad as other people’s. I don’t want to take a spot from them.”
  • “I’ve moved on. Help someone who is still struggling.”

At Saprea, we want the “high-functioning,” “doing okay,” “not as bad as someone else” survivor to know that our retreat is for you. We built the retreat experience for you. We want to help you move past coping to healing.

Here are two questions you can use to know if the Saprea Retreat is for you:

Are you an adult woman who was sexually abused at or before age 18? 
Are you coping and even high-functioning but still feel the effects of trauma? 

If the answer to these two questions is “yes,” then we are here for you. And we want you to come. You are worth the time, the funding, and the attention.

No matter where you are on your healing journey—at the beginning, somewhere in the middle, or near the end—we are confident you will find value in what we offer.

So next time you doubt whether or not the Saprea Retreat is for you, we hope there is a little voice in your head that says, “Yes! In fact, it is designed just for me.”

About the author

Image

Chris Yadon, MPA

Managing Director
As Saprea’s first employee and Executive Director, Chris Yadon collaborated closely with the organization’s founders to launch and establish its operations in 2015. Chris now serves as the Managing Director, leading the organization’s public efforts to drive societal change around the issue of child sexual abuse. He has previously held executive leadership positions for start-up tech and healthcare organizations. Chris is committed to driving broad societal change to address child sexual abuse and uses his influence as a thought leader and strategist to inspire others to take action. He firmly believes we can collectively create a better future for our children. A sought-after speaker, Chris inspires audiences with timely topics such as overcoming emotional numbing by learning how to feel again, protecting children from child sexual abuse in a hypersexualized world, and how to intentionally drive societal change. He has been featured across several media platforms where he is requested to contribute as an industry leader and subject matter expert. Chris received a BA and an MPA degree from Brigham Young University. He is the grateful father of six children: three boys and three girls. He and his wife, Christy, have been married for 28 years.

Recent blogs

35384:full
Conversation Prompts for Parents: Talking About Sensitive Topics
Starting conversations about online safety and sextortion with teens can feel difficult. These practical conversation prompts help parents discuss sensitive topics, recognize red flags, and build trust so young people feel safe asking for help when they need it.
Read this article
35379:full
Common Platforms Where Sextortion Begins
Sextortion often begins on platforms teens use most, including social media, gaming chats, livestreams, and anonymous messaging apps. Understanding these high-risk spaces and teaching young people to recognize red flags can help parents protect them from online predators.
Read this article
34449:full
What Stops Children from Reporting Grooming: Understanding Barriers to Disclosure
Learn why children and teens often don’t report grooming, the manipulative tactics abusers use, and how caregivers can create safe, supportive environments to help survivors speak up and heal.
Read this article
SEE ALL blogs