When a child is away from home, then parents always advise him or her to be careful and alert about surroundings. It is natural for the parents to be concerned about their child’s safety whenever the boy or girl steps outside. According to them, their child is always safe and secure at home. All the wrong things happen only when the child is not under the supervision of parents.

Is a child really safe within the four walls of a house?We come across a lot of news regarding sexual abuse of a child and this occurs right inside the “secured” home. Sexual abuse of a child is a heinous crime. It is seen that this crime is often committed by a person who is close to the child’s family. This criminal hides his wicked intentions behind his smiling face. He takes advantage of the trust that the child’s parents have shown on him. The problem is that in such cases, it is difficult to identify or doubt anyone without having any evidence. If this is the situation, then how can parents protect their child from this monster?

Sexual abuse of a child is not a new issue in our society. It was present within us for a long time. There was a lack of awareness that actually existed amongst us about this crime. It was something which was beyond our imagination. The first and foremost responsibility of the parents is to make themselves and the child aware of sexual abuse. Though it is not an easy task to discuss this topic with a child, but parents need to take the initiative. They can also be attentive towards a few aspects which will help the child to a great extent:

• Parents should be a bit more careful when they are leaving their child with a male member of the family. If both the parents are working and the child is left for babysitting with someone at home, then it will be a wise thing to keep a check on the frequent visitors who come to the house in absence of the parents. Though it sounds very mean and ugly to distrust anyone who is close to family, but this is a fact that children often get abused by people who belong to our inner circle.

• Parents should educate the child to inform them about any incident where the child has been touched by someone in an inappropriate manner(the meaning of “inappropriate” also needs to be explained to the child in a simple way). It is seen that children feel too ashamed or scared to speak out about anything like this that has happened to them and keep within themselves forever.

• Having a conversation with the child on a daily basis (even if parents are too busy with their own lives) will help the parents to know in detail about the child’s activities throughout the day. This will help the parents to analyze the possibility of any threat to the child.

• A child should always be encouraged to remember important emergency contact numbers.

Child abuse can happen in any family. This can cause lifelong physical and mental disturbances in an innocent child. So parents should remain alert all the time. If any such incident happens within a family, then it should be reported to the police immediately. The evildoers who commit this unforgiving crime of sexual abuse must be locked behind the bars.