Outdoor Public Awareness Campaign Calls on Everyone to “Pledge to Prevent ” Child Sexual Abuse

The Pledge to Prevent® is a unique online action campaign to prevent child sexual abuse. Its goal is to harness the public’s keen awareness about the problem and provide thousands of individuals around the world with the education they need to then take concrete, practical actions to prevent it in their homes and communities. Pledgers choose from among the 24 pledges described under the various categories:

Learner (I want to educate myself about the issue.)
Prevention Influencer (I want to share what I know.)
Safe Community Promoter (I want to engage my school or youth organization in prevention actions.) or
Movement Builder (I want my legislator to champion prevention laws and policies.)

After taking a pledge, pledgers immediately receive an email with links to over 30 resources that will educate them about how to carry out their specific pledge.

Enough Abuse® and END1IN4, Inc., Coordinating Partners for the Pledge to Prevent® are promoting the Pledge through an outdoor public awareness campaign in 10 Boston MBTA stations, in Franklin County, MA, and in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach, FL counties. This campaign was previously featured in New York City’s Times Square.

The ads are appearing throughout the month of April—National Child Abuse Prevention Month. A social media toolkit is available so individuals and organizations can promote it with their networks.

Currently, individuals who have taken the Pledge to Prevent® come from nearly every U.S. state and several countries, including Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Zambia, Liberia, India, etc.

Preventing Child Sexual Abuse in Massachusetts Schools

Enough Abuse® is currently providing expert technical assistance around child sexual abuse prevention policies and training to school districts in several MA counties. Through our Safety S.T.A.R.S. program, we work with school leaders to improve:

Screening of prospective school employees for histories of sexual misconduct.

Training of staff and volunteers about how to prevent child sexual abuse;

Assessment of the school's child safety and protection policies;

Responses to boundary violating behaviors by school staff;

Securing of physical spaces to reduce opportunities for abuse to occur.

Read more about this program and the abuse prevention policy resources available to schools here: Safety S.T.A.R.S.

"Enough! Preventing Child Sexual Abuse in My School"

Enough Abuse® provides child sexual abuse prevention training to school staff members through our 1-hour online course, "Enough! Preventing Child Sexual Abuse in My School!" “Enough!” is the most comprehensive training course available in the U.S. developed exclusively to meet the specific needs of public and private schools, and to address the challenges they face in preventing child sexual abuse and educator sexual misconduct. Over 13,000 employees in 171 schools in nine states have completed the course to date. School administrators can email us to take the course for free as a preview.

A similar one-hour course for youth-serving organizations is also available. Click here to learn more and request a preview.

Does Your State Criminalize AI-Generated Child Sexual Abuse Material (aka child pornography)?

Research by Enough Abuse® has documented that 38 states have enacted laws that criminalize AI-generated or computer-edited child sexual abuse material (CSAM). 12 states and D.C. have not updated their CSAM laws to reflect the latest technology used to exploit children. Massachusetts is among them. However, Enough Abuse® worked with Senator Paul Mark and Representative Natalie Blais to draft the most comprehensive language possible. S.1174/H.1593 have been filed this session.

The blue states in the map above have enacted these laws, more than half in 2024 alone. This reflects strong concern by legislators and advocates about the significant increase in the production, possession and distribution of CSAM that uses technology to victimize real children. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) has received more than 7,000 reports of CSAM involving generative AI technology in the past two years, and these numbers are expected to grow.

AI or computer-generated CSAM poses many dangers to children:

Perpetrators can now generate, alter or collage depictions of children that are indistinguishable from depictions of real children.
They can use parts of images of real children to create a composite image that is unidentifiable as a particular child, and in a way that prevents even an expert from concluding that parts of images of real children were used.
Artificially-generated or computer-edited CSAM further re-victimizes actual child victims, as their images are collected from the Internet and studied by artificial intelligence tools to create new images.
Child predators can also use artificially-generated or computer-edited CSAM to extort minors and their families for financial gain.

Check out your state's CSAM law. Visit our new interactive map.

Pass the Prevention Package in Massachusetts!

As you may have read in our recent legislation alert, several child sexual abuse-related bills have been filed in Massachusetts and Enough Abuse® is working closely with legislators, advocates and survivors to ensure these bills make it to the finish line this year. For the latest summary of the prevention bills, c lick here. For a flyer that highlights the specific school-related "Prevention Package" bills, c lick here. To read press coverage related to our legislative advocacy work, visit our Press Page.

Does Your State Criminalize Sexual Abuse by School Employees?

Join the States Policy Exchange to Advocate for Legislation

Answered "No" to either of the legislation questions above? Consider joining our virtual advocacy group, the States Policy Exchange. This online information-sharing and peer support platform helps child advocates and legislators to advocate for prevention policies and laws in their states. Visit the States Policy Exchange webpage to see past meeting recordings and notes, and email us if you'd like to join.

We couldn't do this without you!

Your generous donation will help us continue our unique work providing expert technical assistance, support and training to school districts to prevent future cases of child sexual abuse. We are an outcome-driven, no frills organization. Every dollar raised is used to make the greatest impact for children.

Jetta Bernier, Executive Director

ENOUGH ABUSE®, formerly Massachusetts Citizens for Children, dba MassKids, is the nation’s oldest citizen-based child advocacy organization, with a 6-decade history of improving the lives of vulnerable children. We prevent the sexual abuse of children in their homes, communities and online through prevention trainings, education and advocacy.

Contact ENOUGH ABUSE®

Outdoor Public Awareness Campaign Calls on Everyone to “Pledge to Prevent” Child Sexual Abuse