As part of Project Safe Childhood, a Concord man plead guilty to child exploitation. I am grateful for the Department of Justice’s nationwide initiative, to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation. However, child sexual assault laws are inadequate, especially when the majority of the abuse occurs in the childrens’ own homes. There needs to be an initiative that empowers women survivors and provides them with a safe reporting system. Society is failing children.
I am a survivor of childhood sexual abuse and have spent most of my adult life advocating for the protection of children from sexual assault. My abuse began 80 years ago, at a time when members of the community often knew who the sexual predators were, yet laws to hold them accountable were nonexistent.
After a lifetime of fighting this battle, I am tired. But as I approach the end of my life, I remain deeply saddened and angered that child sexual abuse is still rampant, particularly in the digital age. Although the legal system has developed tools to investigate and prosecute many crimes involving online exploitation, countless children continue to have their childhood innocence, emotional well-being and futures stolen within the very homes where they should be safest.
I struggle with frustration and anger when I see women fail to protect children from men who have easy access to them. Yet I also recognize a painful reality: some of these women were themselves abused as children. Their trauma, fear, shame or dependence on an abuser may leave them feeling powerless to report the abuse or escape a dangerous home. Understanding these barriers does not lessen the responsibility to protect children; it underscores the need to provide survivors with the support and protection necessary to act.
This heinous societal scourge will persist until we collectively find the courage to confront it. Women — especially mothers, grandmothers, aunts, cousins and other family members — along with neighbors, schools, churches and every organization entrusted with children’s welfare must be willing to recognize abuse, speak out and take action.
Society must rise to a higher standard. We need stronger laws that prioritize children’s safety, hold perpetrators accountable and ensure that children are promptly and permanently separated from those who sexually abuse them. A child’s safety must never take a back seat to an adult’s reputation, convenience, or desire to preserve a family’s appearance.
Children deserve more than our sympathy. They deserve our courage, our protection and a society that refuses to look the other way.
Paula Czech Lesmerises is a retired registered nurse and is a survivor of child sexual abuse. She lives in Concord.