One of the main points I have tried to make in my book titled “Father Figure – my mission to prevent child sexual abuse”, is that all adults need to keep their eyes open to detect red flags when it comes to risks of sexual abuse of children. People at times ignore a red flag thinking that most likely nothing will actually happen. It might be true that in most cases nothing would actually happen, but you simply cannot take that chance when it comes to risks to children.
In the true account story in my book, I describe a situation where I detected a possible risk to a couple of children and acted diligently to make sure the children remained safe. I am aware that some people will argue that I just wasted my time and energy because nothing would have happened. But I did not want to take a chance because even one episode of child sexual abuse can torment the child for many years in the future.
If a red flag is detected, then it is important to inform the parents of the children so they can do something to protect the children. But sometimes, the parents may not want to take any action to look into the situation. In the story I describe in the book, I talked to the single parent about the possible risks, but the parent did not want to do anything about it. Therefore, I had to work with other family members and various systems such as law enforcement and child protective services to keep the children safe.
The point is that one simply cannot afford to ignore a red flag because this is a very serious matter and once it happens, it simply cannot be reversed.