Sexual abuse can happen to anyone, including children and young people. Child sexual abuse is when another individual or group uses an imbalance of power to coerce, manipulate or deceive a child under the age of 18 into sexual activity. It may be in exchange for something the child wants or needs and/or for the financial advantage or increased status of the perpetrator.
Child sexual abuse can involve physical contact, including penetrative and non-penetrative acts, and non-contact activities, such as forcing children to watch sexual activities. Even if the sexual activity was consensual, the child may have been sexually exploited. Child sexual abuse can be in person and/or online.
We work with all survivors of childhood sexual abuse, including children, young people and adults. It doesn’t matter how long ago it happened. Every person recovering from childhood sexual abuse has a different story to tell. We are here to listen, to support and to help you recover. Our free support services for survivors of child sexual abuse are completely confidential, and we work in partnership with you so you feel in control of your recovery.
If you have experienced sexual abuse as an adult, please visit this page.
Safety Net offers a trauma-informed tiered approach that provides wrap-around support for adults who need help healing from childhood sexual abuse in their past.
We help you build social networks and relationships through volunteer-led crafts groups, peer support groups, befriending and volunteering.
We support children and young people between the ages of 3 and 18. The impact of sexual abuse can last a lifetime, but early therapeutic support can help prevent more serious emotional and behavioural problems from developing later on.
Our counsellors and trauma-informed practitioners offer trauma-informed 1:1 support and sometimes work with caregivers to help the family provide the best possible support. Teenagers can reach out to us directly for help.
We build relationships with children or young people so they feel safe, comfortable and contained. We never expect them to talk directly about their experience of child sexual abuse. Instead, we encourage children to express their feelings in other ways through activities like crafts, creative writing, toys, music, and sand trays. For those unable to attend in person, we also offer video, phone, and email support based on the young person’s needs.
For resources and education on childhood sexual abuse, please visit this page.
If you experienced sexual abuse in your childhood and you’re an adult now, it is not too late to get help. Non-recent child abuse, or historical abuse, is when an adult was abused as a child. You might have only recently identified what happened to you as abuse, or you might have known for a while. Adults who were abused as children often feel a tremendous amount of guilt and feel the abuse was their fault. This is never the case. It was never your fault.
Child sexual abuse healing support is available. We provide historical child sexual abuse support services to help you recover from the events in your childhood – and after. Adults who have experienced child sexual abuse are also more likely to experience other types of abuse later in life, including physical, emotional and domestic abuse. If you have experienced sexual or domestic abuse in adulthood, we can help you with this, too.
When a child or young person experiences sexual abuse, they may feel scared, confused, angry, or something else entirely. They might not understand what happened to them or realise that it was wrong for someone to do that. Some children may behave as if the abuse is normal, especially if it has been ongoing. They might be afraid to tell someone or struggle to find the words to describe what happened. Every experience and response is valid.
It is never a child’s fault that they were sexually abused. When supporting a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, it is important to make sure that they know that.
Children and teenagers may experience:
Women are around three times as likely as men to have experienced sexual abuse before the age of 16.
We offer child sexual abuse survivor support to women. The impact of childhood sexual abuse can last a lifetime, affecting your physical and mental health, relationships, education and finances. Please remember, it was not your fault. There is still help available for adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse, no matter how long ago it happened.
You may experience the following symptoms:
We provide support for male survivors of child sexual abuse. We understand how difficult it can be to come forward and talk about what happened. Sometimes, it’s challenging to process and recognise what you experienced as abuse. We are here to listen, never to judge, and to help you heal, no matter how long ago the abuse occurred. You are not alone, and you don’t have to live in silence.
You may experience the following symptoms:
LGBTQ+ young people are more vulnerable to sexual abuse, online abuse or sexual exploitation.
We provide support for child sexual abuse survivors in the LGBTQ+ community. LGBTQ+ communities experience child sexual abuse in a similar way to that of their cisgender peers. However, sexual abuse in the LGBTQ+ community is often also paired with homophobia, biphobia, transphobia and acephobia, and both non-LGBTQ+ people and those within the LGBTQ+ community can perpetrate it.
Childhood sexual abuse can impact an LGBTQ+ person’s identity, self-confidence, relationships and mental and physical health. We are here to support you and help you process the long-lasting impact of trauma from sexual abuse in childhood.
