{"id":37334,"date":"2025-09-12T13:26:17","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T12:26:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.southglos.gov.uk\/safeguarding\/?p=37334"},"modified":"2026-02-03T13:40:02","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T13:40:02","slug":"child-sexual-abuse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.southglos.gov.uk\/safeguarding\/children\/i-am-a-professional\/child-sexual-abuse\/","title":{"rendered":"Child Sexual Abuse"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>What is Child Sexual Abuse?<\/h3>\n<p>Sexual abuse involves forcing or enticing a child or young person to take part in sexual activities, not necessarily involving a high level of violence, whether or not the child is<br \/>\naware of what is happening. The activities may involve physical contact, including assault by penetration or non-penetrative acts. They may also include non-contact activities, such as involving children in looking at, or in the production of, sexual images, watching sexual activities, encouraging children to behave in sexually inappropriate ways, or grooming a child in preparation for abuse. Sexual abuse can take place online, and technology can be used to facilitate offline abuse. Sexual abuse is not solely perpetrated by adult males. Women can also commit acts of sexual abuse, as can other children.<\/p>\n<h5 class=\"heading knowledge-quick-links__heading knowledge-quick-links__heading--intro h4\">Remember, it is never a child\u2019s responsibility to prevent abuse, protect themselves or make the abuse stop.<\/h5>\n<h3><strong>Resources for practitioners:<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Communicating with children about sexual abuse:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/vU1F5lu3QqY\">Short video introducing the guidance\u00a0<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.csacentre.org.uk\/app\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Communicating-with-Children-Guide-2nd-ed.pdf\">Communicating with Children Guide\u00a0<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Identifying signs and indicators of sexual abuse:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.csacentre.org.uk\/app\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Signs-and-Indicators-Template.pdf\">Signs and indicators template<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/Ox7PiWaqbnc\">Short video introducing the template<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>CSA Centre Free Resources<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.csacentre.org.uk\/research-resources\/practice-resources\/managing-risk-and-trauma-after-online-sexual-offending\/\">Range of resources available from the Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Child Sexual Abuse Response Pathway<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"color: #2a2a2a;font-size: large\">The Child Sexual Abuse Response Pathway\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"color: #2a2a2a;font-size: large\">highlights good practice when there are concerns that a child or young person is being or has been sexually abused. It aims to bring clarity to professionals\u2019 responsibilities and actions at key points to meet children\u2019s needs for safety and support and address their wider wellbeing.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #2a2a2a;font-size: large\">Information and guidance has been developed which explains how the needs of the child or young person can be met throughout the pathway. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/csapathway.uk\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #2a2a2a;font-size: large\">Use the interactive pathway here<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is Child Sexual Abuse? Sexual abuse involves forcing or enticing a child or young person to take part in sexual activities, not necessarily involving a high level of violence, whether or not the child is aware of what is happening. The activities may involve physical contact, including assault by penetration or non-penetrative acts. They [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":604,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[31],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.southglos.gov.uk\/safeguarding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37334"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.southglos.gov.uk\/safeguarding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.southglos.gov.uk\/safeguarding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.southglos.gov.uk\/safeguarding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/604"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.southglos.gov.uk\/safeguarding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37334"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sites.southglos.gov.uk\/safeguarding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37572,"href":"https:\/\/sites.southglos.gov.uk\/safeguarding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37334\/revisions\/37572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.southglos.gov.uk\/safeguarding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.southglos.gov.uk\/safeguarding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.southglos.gov.uk\/safeguarding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}