This information is about child sexual abuse. You'll learn how to recognize sexual abuse, what to do if it happens, and how to help protect children from sexual abuse. Sexual abuse is any sexual act involving a child and an adult, teenager, or older child.
Sexual abuse occurs in all parts of society.
In most cases, children are abused by someone they know and trust. Sexual abuse can be hard to detect because it may not involve any physical harm and does not leave clear signs. But you should know that any of these physical and behavioral signs may also occur in children who have not been sexually abused. So all they can tell you is that the situation should be investigated. If you do discover child abuse, your first response should be to protect the child.