Awareness, mostly.Originally Posted by rv builder
The problem certainly isn't new. But the *magnitude* of the problem didn't become clear until the last several decades.
I'm 61 years old. When I was growing up, I received sniggered warnings to watch out for "funny uncles." I had no idea what that meant, nor what I should do if one of my uncles told me a joke.
Since then, a lot of horrid cases have been revealed, and societal decisions have been made for increased vigilance. Kids
now receive a pretty good bit of warning. Those who work closely with children are not only checked themselves, but are given training to help them spot instances where kids might be undergoing abuse outside their immediate purview.
Because of the increased awareness, we hear of more cases. And, happily, the predators are caught earlier.
Are all of them caught? And caught quickly? Of course not. Note the Geyen case that Mark posted. Geyen was 44 years old. He hadn't started that week, that month, that year, or probably even that decade. Some of these people are extremely clever, and some of them never will be caught.
But many aren't that smart, and with proper vigilance, they can be caught and stopped.
Jimbob has a valid point about "anecdote standards". But there are some folks who say, "It has never, and WILL never happen, in a Young Eagles environment." The anecdote merely proves that this attitude is incorrect.
And, of course, "Data" is not the plural of "Anecdote". It would be good to have actual data to work with, to help, as RV Builder says, establish what the actual risk is.
One or a hundred, though, would be immaterial if EAA ever got sued. If an EAA official, in court, says, "There hadn't been enough instances to justify a prevention program," the plaintiff's attorney would respond, "What to you consider an acceptable level of child sexual abuse?" And EAA would have totally lost the jury.
Ron Wanttaja
