No matter what ministry or program in which you may serve—you are uniquely positioned to be a sanctuary of safety. Safe adults are advocates, which means that we advocate for youth, and with youth for their safety and wellbeing. As a safe adult, you have tremendous power to make a profound difference for children—not only by recognizing and responding to unsafe situations, but also by teaching children about their rights to safety and creating environments where they can speak up and get help. To be clear, it is our responsibility as adults to create safe environments for the children in our care, and there are also things we can teach to children to help them to be safer.

Consider a situation in which a child abuser, named “Jerry,” who, as part of the grooming process, manipulates a 14-year-old girl named "Sarah,” to create and then text him sexually explicit images of herself. Later, when Sarah refuses to meet him for sex, Jerry threatens her and retaliates by deliberately posting her intimate images on various social media platforms and websites. In many situations, this scheme ultimately can result in the child capitulating and meeting with the adult in person, or providing monetary payment to prevent additional retaliation. In some situations, the resulting stress and shame of the retaliation culminates in the child taking his or her own life. However, there are actions that can be taken to address this type of Non-Consensual Intimate Imagery (NCII) abuse for victims like Sarah, that can remove these images and protect her before further harm can occur.