When Child Sexual Abuse replaces Saddam, Britney and MySpace in the top 10 search lists, will life be more protective for our children?

Child Sexual Abuse prevention and help appears to have a low public profile. Many a night I have unintentionally ended a dinner party by talking about Child Sexual Abuse (guests don’t know what to say about it). Many a time I have been told, I am preaching (and yes, I admit I preach. I’m trying to change that). Many a time I have been told that Child Sexual Abuse doesn’t really happen, that it is a research topic for bored academics. Many a time I have sat and listened to the heart wrenching stories from children affected by sexual abuse and their concerns that nobody cares about them. Many a time have I been ridiculed, threatened and ostracized because I fight for the rights of child protection.

A list compiled by My Digital Life nicely categorizes the top 10 searches of 2006. Child Sexual Assault is not on the list. In my experience, GoogleAds attracted to Child Sexual Abuse pages appear to be low payers: advertisers know they cannot make money out of Child Sexual Abuse because it’s hardly a trendy or popular topic.

Is this because Child Sexual Abuse is a dirty word, a figment of our non-academic imaginations or because no one should profit from Child Sexual Abuse? I don’t know the answer and I’m very interested in your thoughts. What I do know through professional experience is that child sexual abuse is both rampant and under valued. With prevalence rates as high as one in three children affected by sexual abuse a lot of consumers already know the importance of funding, supporting and raising the advertising time around child sexual abuse prevention and help.

In Child uses Google to get out of sexual abuse, Melly nicely highlights the usefulness of search engines as a child protection tool. When Child Sexual Abuse finds its way onto the top 10 searches, will it be even easier for our kids at risk because their plight has finally grabbed the attention of the world?

Perhaps someone way more techno savvy than me could explain what would happen if each of us entered, daily, “child sexual abuse” into a search engine (I use Google and Technorati). Would this help to make child sexual abuse public by getting it into the top 10 search list? Would this raise the profile of child sexual abuse in the eyes of a public who do mostly care but are unsure what to do to help? I do appreciate that millions of genuine searches would be needed but perhaps this is an easy start place for raising the profile of the prevention of child sexual abuse. If you want to know something about Child Sexual Abuse, please try a Google search and help make the search term "Child Sexual Abuse" more visible.

What’s your thoughts? When will you be prepared to have Child Sexual Abuse replace Saddam, Britney or MySpace?

Read previous Topical Whensday articles here.