Whether they be young or elderly, they are afraid. Today’s men are being demonized by media etcera etcetera.

While it’s absolutely brilliant to see women, children or people abused as children speaking out, there is a culture of fear in today’s society. Paranoia, terrorism etc.

This is truly sad.

Quick, someone, call the cops! I must be abusing my children BY BEING A LOVING, RESPONSIBLE PARENT!!!

let me guess, Ms. Odor doesnt even have any children?

http://www.canadiancrc.com/female_sexual_predators_awareness.htm
http://www.canadiancrc.com/articles/MovingF_Female_perpetrators_Child_sexual_abuse_JUL94.htm
http://www.kalimunro.com/article_sexual_abuse_by_mothers.html
http://www.kalimunro.com/article_mother_son_sexual_abuse.html

Add to that that the campaign’s claim that 88% of sexual abuse (with the unspoken implication that the abuser is male) goes unreported is specious. There are no solid figures available, and estimates by researchers typically range between 8% and 71%; with a few studies indicating that estimates of unreported abuse may be severly overinflated.

A huge percentage of fashion models are teens, often early-teens, whose careers end when they start developing more adult features. Childrens’ fashions are frequently merely copies of adult fashions, often including the more risque styles. Children are forced into sexually suggestive situations in adverts, sitcoms, music videos, and so on. “Paedophile chic” has a strong hold on the pop music industry, as exemplified by performers such as Brittney Spears and Christina Augilera. Big-name fashion designer Calvin Klein has spent the better part of two and a half decades incorporating sexually-charged images of adolescent or adolescent-appearing models, and suggestive images of pre-adolescents.

These cultures are exceedingly obssessed with youth, with looking and acting younger, with strongly-promoted standards of beauty and sexual desirability based in adolesence instead of fully-developed adulthood. Yet at the same time, are obsessed with the predatory paedophile/hebephile bogeyman. It’s cultural schizophrenia.

If there is an increase in child sexual abuse, which I’m not yet convinced of, its not some lurking evil from outside infecting our culture; but are merely a reaction to current cultural trends, and will continue as long as those trends continue.

What also bothers me is the intense focus on male child abusers, and the implication that female child abusers are non-existent

Please, please stop this campaign before it does irreparable damage to innocent men in Virginia!

I agree that stopping child abuse is important, and that we must do all we can to prevent it, but this campaign is seeking to employ a damaged tool (a suspicious public) to fix a complicated problem. The American population (in fact, *any* population) is simply unskilled in the cognitive tools necessary to, *at a glance* determine the difference between a healthy non-sexual relationship between father and daughter, and a sexual one. Therapists and psychologists and family care workers would not be so brazen as to presume that for all their training, they could identify a child molester on sight. You are asking the the Virginian population to perform an impossible task, and many well-intentioned people will act on your suggestion and do what they believe to be their civic duty, and will start a chain of events that will tar many innocent father’s reputations.

If the skilled professionals do not claim they can accurately spot a child-molester on sight, then do not demand that average people, or even city and state police can. This campaign *will* do much more damage than it will prevent, and will go down in history as a bad idea.

Please, please, stop this now, before lasting harm is done.

Investigate these child sexploitation experts who want to criminalize hand holding, and chances are high you’ll find that they too are leading double lives. How do I know that? Because sane, decent people would never advocate such outrageous notions!

Yeah, makes perfect sense to focus energy on fathers who are positively involved in their children’s lives.

Child molesters, regardless of their actions, are human, and therefore look exactly like everyone else. The image is probably NOT of a real molester, and could (unless you recognize that hand) be anyone. It is uninformative at best, and disingenuous at worst.

These people, YES “these people” like this Odor must have it on HER mind to do the things she assumes others are going! This is a SICK person folks……AND…..she holds a trusted state level position…..

Yes Virginia, there really is a Santy Claus and he’s molesting little girls!

Sleep tight Virginia

I also wonder how many of the commenters, here, who have expressed their outrage and discomfort with this one piece of this odious campaign, will also tune in next week or whenever for the latest installment of “To Catch a Predator.”

There’s little difference, after all, between those two components of the same crusade.

Mark

PS Thank you for being willing to attach your name to this piece. Soonly enough, that, alone, may be enough to cause someone to “follow their instincts” - which, is too bad, since it seems you have at least one child.

There WILL be a second American Revolution. Whether it takes place at the polls or in the streets depends on those in positions of power.

BTW, I am USMC Retired, VietNam era. My heart aches in my chest every time I see another maimed Iraq/Afghanistan vet coming home. And not all the wounds are visible. I’m still trying to deal with mine.

Until the people of America stand up and demand complete visibility and accountability of their government things like this foolish child abuse prevention campaign will simply multiply as they play right into the hands of the fear mongers and create paranoia, diverting public attention from other issues they want ignored.

Call me a conspiracy nut if you like. All I ask is that people wake up and look at what used to be a rose garden, now turned into a wasteland by (guess who).

Thank you for telling us your concerns about our ad campaign to prevent
child sexual abuse. The campaign focuses on encouraging people to trust
their “gut” feelings and to notice and acknowledge when they feel
uncomfortable about how an adult they know is interacting with a child. The
campaign encourages them to call a confidential national helpline to give
them a place to talk about their concerns and determine how to take action
to keep kids safe.

In Virginia 1 in 4 women and 1 in 5 men have been a victim of childhood
sexual abuse. Most offenders are male (89%), but most males are not
offenders. Almost half of the offenders are related to the child.

We understand your concern that because of the increased awareness generated
by the campaign, a stranger may mistakenly accuse a father of inappropriate
behavior.

However, over the 18 months of the campaign in Virginia, the helpline staff
has not received any calls from someone who perceived handholding as a
warning sign of abuse.

I know that we share the same goal of preventing the sexual abuse of
children and appreciate your feedback on the campaign. I hope this
explanation clarifies that the campaign’s purpose is to encourage adults to
take action to protect children at risk for sexual abuse.

Again, thank you for your comments.

—–
Rebecca Odor
Director of Sexual & Domestic Violence Prevention
Division of Injury and Violence Prevention
Virginia Department of Health

Needless to say we don’t enjoy our time in that park anymore. I am now always second guessing everything I do. Its a scary time to be a parent. After all everyone else knows how to deal with your child better than you do.

When will America wake up to what’s happening and demand government SERVICE versus SUPPRESSION and MANIPULATION?

the problem is that the billboard isn’t depicting “warning signs” or listing information. It’s an image of an adult holding the hand of a child. It’s meant to influence rather than inform. It goes beyond promoting “awareness” into fostering paranoia. People are already quite aware of the existence of sexual abuse. This billboard’s image would have you thinking about the problem to the point that you see a potential pedophile in every male touch. It’s most unfortunate that the Virginia Department of Health chose this image. Gosh, that man doesn’t “look right” with that child. How many people will make phone calls because a man “looks funny” or because they have an axe to grind? No, this billboard will do nothing but promote harm. I say that as someone who has two victims of abuse in my extended family. Even I see the danger in the choice of that image.

This is what I saw too, a man holding a child’s hand, possibly a father, uncle, grandfather, family friend, teacher or priest. Yet as I read the comments the focus is on fathers, but when I went to the Stop It Now website I found nothing that stated males only or wording that specifically targeted fathers, rather “Warning Signs For An Adult With Sexual Behavior Problems.” One individual was brave enough to take the focus from a reaction point of view to a responsive point of view stating, “unfortunatly it is a proven fact that most [sexual predators] are male and a family members or freind of the family” but possibly rather trying to find a solution “children of this nation need to be protected from child molesters and are laws need to be addressed instead of a slap on yhe wrist…..we as a society try to ignore what is happening becouse it’s easier that way.”

So instead of sitting at our computers, posting blogs and comments that have been triggered by the perspective of the author, I ask you one thing….join forces and help the fight to end violence in general….although, it is a difficult task to do, when people are upset by the image above because it doesn’t include or depict their own relationship with the children in their lives. They end up frustrated and/or angry to the point that some individuals are adding to are social violence by thinking that some individuals have taken it as far as possibly sending threatening e-mails to R. Odor or anyone else involved with this campaign…..

Normative change isn’t easy…..but all of this has risen not by the healthy relationships fathers have had with their child but by that one rotted apple that unfortunately has spoiled some others in the basket….I can sit here and type that I think the men that responded to this blog are all sexual predators or I can see them as positive male role models that are potential men with the courage and strength to join the movement of ending social violence, which i think is a responsive versus reactive.

how many of you checked out the campaigns website prior to posting your comment? just remember this: Warning Signs For An Adult With Sexual Behavior Problems. Maybe the campaign should have multiple posters to include a female to depict women sexual predators or two children holding hands to depict juvenile sex offenders…..I believe the poster did its job….it made all of you more aware of child sexual violence and to think about sexual predators in general whatever gender, age or ethnicity…..

I’m certainly not saying that I agree with this type of call to action-as it will only perpetuate the stereotype that this doesn’t really happen. Because what will come from this is a whole slew of false accusations. It will turn the whole issue into a witch hunt that will inevitably destroy any hope we may have had for progress on this issue.

I am beginning to see the wisdom in home-schooling and just doing everything for my kids within the confines of a “safe haven” called home and cut out interaction with the rest of the world that is already in hell!

Let’s see. Go back to school and take some English.

Metaphor:

a figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting one kind of object or idea is used in place of another to suggest a likeness or analogy between them (as in drowning in money); broadly : figurative language —

Ms. Odor says: Some fathers abuse. Therefore take a photo of any father holding a childs hand. Thus all fathers abuse.

My response: Some families are inbred in West Virginia. Therefore all Virginia families are inbred. Thus they all sleep with their own.

Of course this is ridiculous. Thus Ms. Odor campaign is ridiculous.

But of course, Greg, you don’t read carefully enough to understand the metaphor.

Ken

I wouldn’t suspect a 60 year old to be a child molester.

Are you a just a run of the mill pervert who makes a lot of fuss just so you can have more people tell you titillating stories?

“Wow. My dad insisted on holding my hand wherever I went with him till i was like 12. I always thought it was because he was over protective. Now I know why.”

Hahahahahahaha…………

Im glad someone put this into perspective….. well done

Can someone tell me when I can stop living in fear from my own people? It was so much simpler when the threat was from the outside.

But this Odore-ideia is a shit. The parents should take their children’s hands. They should love them, in public and in private… There are always stupid ideas about how should we live, how should we act… If the children don’t get hugs, kisses, they can have more kind of mental illnes..

I was abused as a child, and have been the victim of several rapes later in life, so yes, I’m over emotional, over sensitive and more than a little paranoid, yet, some how, even I can see that this is nothing short of pathetic. So the guy next door plays his music too loud, you ask him to turn it down and he doesn’t, next day he’s walking his daughter to school, oh great, lets shop him for child abuse. How about your ex husband who has shared contact with your daughter? He left you for a younger, thinner, more attractive woman, he must be up to something dodgy when he grabs the kids hand to stop her running under a bus.

I don’t trust anyone, not my husband, not my father, no one, but to use such blatant scare tactics is as irresponsible as ignoring a childs complaints about someone you love because you just can’t see them doing such a thing. This does nothing but allow people to be victimised for caring for their child. If someone thinks something is wrong, they’ll report it or ignore it, images like the one above will not change a persons actions if they suspect something, at best it will force more family break ups because of the additional stressed put on parents.

We see today where preschoolers are being arrested and charged with “sexual harassment” when these same toddlers have absolutely no idea the “actions” they did to lead up to the destruction of there lives. What next? Will it get to the point that giving birth has both victim (Mommy) and offender (Infant) , along with the nurses, doctors, spouse, others and charged with conspiracy to commit a sex offense (Sexual Battery). Ridiculas you say? When it has come to arresting 3, 4, 5 y/o for a registrable sex offense, this looks more and more possible. If this fiction ever happens, run for the boarders for the collapse of this country is not that far behind.

GOD HELP US ALL…..

That said, this ad campaign is a little nutty. I don’t think it’s saying “report anyone holding a kid’s hand”, but it is inevitiably going to lead some overly paranoid neighbors to start reporting the family next door because the dad/mom has a tattoo or a beard or doesn’t dress or act according to what they consider to be “proper standards”.

Oh well, at least you’re helping to prove that the stereotype about women responding to things hysterically while men are more stoic is totally false. Oh, and you’re helping to prove that you are a complete idiot, just in case you missed the tone of my post.

All that said, I agree that this campaign is ridiculous and dangerous and just plain wrong — but entirely the sort of thing you would expect from Americans.

it’s not even just parents they’re talking about here. I grew up in a REALLY large family, and at family functions the uncles and cousins and parents and kids all generally did stuff together. Parents are so god damn terrified their kids are going to get kidnapped they won’t