A female survivor has started on the road to a potential American legal precedent by suing any child pornography collector found in possession of pictures of her, aged 10.
Read about it at the New York Times here and since the NYT may go behind the subscription wall after a while, you can google it for an alternative source or let us know if the link changes.
- CBG
I’ve been exchanging emails this week with Victoria Simpson about a British website that offers e-learning courses about how to protect children. Here’s some of what she had to say about them:
I am trying to raise awareness of these courses for my client and it is also a subject that is close to my heart having had abused children come and stay with us.
There is some info on the course here
http://www.virtual-college.co.uk/products/child-abuse.aspx
But in a nutshell, the aim of the course is to concentrate on ways in which children and young people can ‘stay safe’ by minimising the incidence of child abuse and neglect. The module will help the learner gain a better understanding of the types of abuse or neglect to a child and explain what the learner must do if they suspect a child is being abused or neglected.
It will help the learner to:
* Understand the various types of child abuse and neglect
* Identify the signs and what to look for
* Know what steps to take if there is a suspicion of abuse
* Know what to do if a child or adult discloses abuse
* Understand the importance of keeping records
She offered me a chance to get a free temporary login and review the courses, but since I don’t have children of my own, instead I asked if I could talk about the courses here and see if anyone of the readers would be interested in doing a review, either on this blog, or their own. She is giving me the opportunity to extend the offer to some folks, so if this is something you’re interested in doing leave a comment here, and make sure you fill in your email address in the comment form. (Don’t worry, I’m the only one who sees the email in the form) I will pass it along to her, and if you don’t have your own blog, let me know in the comment and I’ll be in touch to find out about guest posting here.
I got an email from someone afew days ago asking if I would link to a faith-based resource, and since I don’t really discriminate one way or the other on faith-based resources, I responded that I’d of course be glad to point to anything that might prove useful to folks reading here.
So, here’s the link, Healing Broken Men:
Many men suffer in silence and isolation as they attempt to deal with the after math of childhood sexual abuse. They have no where to turn and are often tortured by false shame, guilt and embarrassment. This faith-based group offers support to help men ready to start the journey of healing.
If you’re interested, please check it out, and if you’ve been involved there, feel free to drop us a line in the comments and tell us more about it!
I got an email toda about something called Movember, which I think Lyndsay explained in her email better than I could:
Hi, Mike. Ever thought about growing a moustache?
That’s exactly what the folks at Movember are trying to get men to do. Movember is a moustache growing charity event held during November each year that raises funds and awareness for men’s health. It started in Australia (“mo” is Aussie slang for moustache) and happens all around the world. The site is here:
In the U.S., Movember is being utilized to get people talking about prostate cancer, a very serious health issue for men. Participants in Movember (known as Mo Bros) start the month clean shaven, and along the journey of growing and grooming get people to talk about health issues normally avoided, at the same time raising money for the cause. Since Movember’s inception in 2003, almost 200,000 Mo Bros have sported a Mo and more than $29 million has been raised globally for prostate cancer research, including $740,568 raised in the United States last year. Movember is the biggest international event supporting prostate cancer.
You might think it’s a bit early in the year for me to be talking to you about this, but the truth is it takes time to get the Mo Bros (and Mo Sistas!) team up and running. We’re hoping people will start checking this out and registering to participate right away.
I hope this is content you’ll consider passing on to your readers. There’s a lot of info at Movember.com, including images, and I’ve got background and press documents I can share. Thanks very much for your time and let me know if you have any questions.
Best,
Lyndsay
I’ve often wondered what kinds of fundraising goes on for prostate cancer. It doesn’t get the publicity that other forms do, and that’s sad. It’s definitely smething we should be talking about. If you’re interested, check it out, and if you need to get in touch with Lyndsay for more info, drop me an email and I’ll get you in touch with. I won’t be signing up to grow a moustache myself, spent too many years with facia hair as it was. 
