Hello Reader,

April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month. And a brand new study supports why body safety talks need to include pornography refusal skills as well.

Body safety and body boundary books abound on Amazon–and for good reason. The CDC reports that:

• At least 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 20 boys experience child sexual abuse before age 18.
• 90% of child sexual abuse is committed by someone the child or family knows and trusts.

➡️ And now a new paper, partially funded by our friends at Culture Reframed, shows connections between pornography and child sexual abuse (CSA). Professionals who work with victims of CSA have documented the links between pornography exposure and the troubling rise in child-on-child problematic sexual behavior.

Over ten years ago we saw it coming. We talked with a child advocacy worker who saw the oncoming and terrifying tsunami of child-on-child sexual abuse due to early exposure to pornography.

As we talked to her, we could literally hear the fear in her voice.

Thankfully, the academic studies are catching up with reality.

The 2026 paper, Child Advocacy Workers’ Accounts of the Connections Between Pornography and Child Sexual Abuse, reported that child advocacy workers said pornography can play a role in child sexual abuse by:

• teaching harmful sexual ideas,
• making coercion seem normal,
• helping predators groom children, and
• being used for threats or blackmail.

And the problem doesn’t seem to be going away.

Darkness to Light, a child sexual abuse prevention organization, reports that more than 70% of child sexual abuse is perpetrated by another minor. That is a shocking statistic!
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​4 Reasons why body safety needs to include porn-proofing

• Children are exposed to porn early and from a long list of porn pipelines.
• ​Porn is the perpetrator. Kids who view porn are more likely to act out on other children.
• ​Predators use porn to groom children for abuse–it normalizes child sexual abuse, breaks down natural inhibitions, and teaches children specific sexual acts to imitate.
• ​Porn-proofed kids are safer. Kids who know to report porn exposure are safer from direct or hands-on child abuse. They can get themselves out of unsafe situations by telling a trusted adult as soon as possible.

So please, don't stop with body safety.
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​Empower your child to recognize and report exposure to pornography.

Kindly,

Kristen

P.S. Last Friday, I keynoted at the Rise Up & Build conference in Jackson MO–what an amazing event! Over 150 members of the community gathered to explore ways to protect children from pornography and strengthen recovery from addiction. I loved hearing how helpful my Four Pillars of Protection presentation was to parents, grandparents, and those who are struggling.
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If your organization, church, or professional practice wants to educate your community and help defend kids from pornography, get in touch! Just hit Reply to see if I can help out in your community.

Help your child build an internal filter that can help shape their future. Resources like our Good Pictures Bad Pictures books give parents a simple, age-appropriate way to talk with kids about pornography before exposure happens.