There are few things scarier for a parent to talk to their kids about than rape. It’s violent. It’s dehumanizing. It’s everything we want to protect our kids from. And yet something as simple as how you’re talking to your kids could be making the problem that much worse.
We’re now living in a country where an estimated 1 in 3 girls and 1 in 6 boys will be sexually assaulted by the age of 18. Every two minutes, another American is sexually assaulted. And our college kids are at a heightened risk — 11.2 percent of all students (undergrad and graduate school) experience rape or sexual assault through physical force, violence or incapacitation.
And every day, our kids hear excuses for the perpetrators, accusations hailed at the victims.
What were you wearing that night?
She’s such a tease.
And on it goes. That’s why SheKnows’ Hatch program has partnered with the Ad Council to take a look at the conversations we’re having with our kids, to really look at what it is our kids hear day in and day out.
Moms, Dads: It’s on us to change the conversation. It’s on us to tell our kids who’s really to blame for rape (the rapists) and who’s never at fault (the victims). It’s on us to talk to our kids in a way that stops rape culture in its tracks and truly protects them.
More:How the hell am I supposed to know how to tell my daughter I was raped?
To take the pledge to give our kids better than we got, visit It’s On Us and stand up to ending sex assault on campuses nationwide.
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