Salinas wants your help fighting child sex abuse

“One in four young women and one in six young men will experience some sort of child sexual abuse before they reach the age of 18,” said Lauren DaSilva with the Monterey County Rape Crisis Center.

Organizations told KION 18-32 percent of sexual abuse is actually reported to law enforcement, so they’re calling on the community to step forward, become more involved and alert police. April marks Sexual Assault Awareness month.

“As a community we are failing to protect our children,” said Roza Zavala with the Monterey County Rape Crisis Center. “So we need to start talking about it and saying it out loud so that we can protect our kids.”

The Monterey County Rape Crisis Center says last year they saw a huge spike in the number of people who sought out sexual assault forensic examinations.

“We do know that this is happening in our community,” said DaSilva. “So the reporting numbers are an indicator of everyone feeling comfortable coming forward.”

Salinas Police Department said fighting child sex abuse is a huge challenge. Kids are sometimes abused while under the influence or the perpetrator is the main provider for the family. The most common abuse cases happen in homes where multiple families live and through pics on social media, which end up being shared as child pornography.

“Certain inappropriate pictures might be getting sent out, distributed without the child who originally sent that image knowing,” said Salinas Police Department detective Gabriel Gonzales.

The Monterey County Rape Crisis Center says they are trying to prevent abuse through education to students and presentations to parents.

They say you can get involved by believing a child when they say they’ve been abused, report abuse, learn how to detect it and familiarize yourself with technology.

“Parents should be aware of what their child is doing,” said Gonzales. “We should have access to those cell phones. Look at those cell phones and see who they’re being friends with, see what conversations that they’re having.”

Salinas Police told KION they face cultural challenges as well. In some cases, people from other countries do not know that it is illegal to marry or have sex with someone under the age of 18.

Authorities also say bed wetting, sudden mood changes and not wanting to be around certain people are signs that a child has been abused.