Mexico City –   Sexual abuse marked Dafna Viniegra’s life from childhood. Today, as co-founder and president of Infancia Libre de Abuso Sexual AC (ILAS), an organization dedicated to preventing this crime, she has transformed that experience into a mission of protection and prevention.

“I experienced sexual abuse in my childhood and it took me a lifetime to truly recover, heal, and be present,” she recounted in an interview with Siete24 Noticias.

Viniegra explains that after experiencing abuse, she faced consequences that also affected different stages of her life. She spoke of drug and alcohol use, as well as periods she describes as “very dark times.”

Her personal recovery experience, she notes, gave rise to ILAS and her work with other people who experienced abuse during childhood.

“Helping people like me, who are already in danger of extinction, what we seek is that there are no more adults with the mark of childhood sexual abuse,” is one of the objectives he sets for the organization.

Silence and impunity: two factors that maintain abuse

For Dafna Viniegra, preventing child sexual abuse requires ceasing to consider it as an exclusively private matter.

“Silence and impunity” are, from his perspective, two of the factors that allow the problem to continue.

The interviewee points out that silence can end up protecting the aggressor. She also identifies the stigma surrounding sexuality and the lack of education and communication as obstacles preventing children and adolescents from recognizing risky situations and asking for help.

Therefore, she suggests strengthening values ​​such as communication, safety, and respect for children at home. “We have to change that aspect… Education begins at home.”

In that context, she considers it necessary to talk about sexuality with girls and boys according to their age, so that they know their bodies, establish limits and can identify what is not right.

Mexico faces a problem that ILAS considers social

Every five minutes, five children are victims of sexual abuse in Mexico, Dafna Viniegra pointed out during the interview, a fact she attributes to the National Survey on the Dynamics of Household Relationships, INEGI, according to the figure she presented.

The spokesperson for ILAS, based in Guadalajara, also stated that Mexico ranks first in the world for child sexual abuse and pointed to Jalisco as the state with the highest incidence.

These figures are part of the data that the organization uses to assess the scope of the problem, obtained from reports by organizations such as the OECD, INEGI, CEAV, Impunidad Cero, Early Institute and REDIM on sexual violence against minors and lack of reporting.

Beyond the statistics, Viniegra insists that abuse must be addressed as a social problem involving families, authorities, and institutions.

“Why are we still the number one country? Because we can. Because of impunity.”

What to do if you suspect child sexual abuse?

Before resorting to technological tools, Viniegra places the family and caregivers as a first safety net.

If there is suspicion or confirmation that a child or adolescent is facing sexual violence, it is recommended to begin with emotional support.

“That teenager or that child should know that what they are experiencing, what happened, was not their fault, it was not their responsibility.”

He also suggested removing the alleged aggressor from contact with the child, seeking therapeutic attention, and ensuring that the child “sees that adults are taking steps to protect him,” he explained.

Dafna warns that one of the most serious and impactful problems occurs when families do not believe the victim or keep the aggressor within the family environment.

“If we have that suspicion, the first thing is emotional support, to come together as a family, to take the children or adolescents to therapy, but above all to cut off the aggressor’s access, to separate them.”

This attention, she adds, must be accompanied by mechanisms for justice and reparation that prevent the reporting process from generating a new traumatic experience. For example, they are working with the authorities to ensure that the statement is recorded and that the same recording is used in all cases; this is to avoid subjecting abused children to repeatedly recount the assault. “Let’s keep in mind that the brain, the mind, tends to forget what causes harm.”

VigIA: technology to detect risk signals

Given this situation, ILAS is incorporating technology as another prevention tool. The organization developed VigIA, a system that seeks to detect signs associated with potential risk situations involving children and adolescents.

According to Viniegra, VigIA works through an application that allows linking devices used by children and teenagers, such as cell phones, tablets and smartwatches; later they will incorporate instruments such as smart speakers.

The system uses artificial intelligence to analyze the environment during periods when parents or caregivers are not present. If it detects patterns that could represent a risk, it generates an alert.

For example, with phrases related to coercion or manipulation:

“Don’t tell your parents what we’re going to do,” “this is a secret between you and me,” or “if you don’t agree, I’m going to tell them it was your fault.”

The alert arrives on the phone of the parent or caregiver and allows them to consult a transcript and the audio of the detected moment, Viniegra explained.

The interviewee emphasizes a central point:

“Technology does not replace the adult’s decision.”

“So that you as a person are the final arbiter, let’s not leave everything to technology, and you decide exactly what is happening with childhood and decide what to do.”

VigIA includes grooming detection, conversation analysis, real-time alerts, geofencing, a panic button, and help channels, according to a statement from ILAS.

Dafna Viniegra anticipated that the organization is also working on an institutional version for schools, with the intention of incorporating this technology into classrooms and school spaces to prevent child sexual abuse.

ILAS seeks to take prevention beyond Mexico

As part of its projects and initiatives, ILAS is also promoting a proposal before the UN for child sexual abuse to be recognized as a standardized high-impact crime, its president confirmed. And for comprehensive reparations mechanisms to be established for victims.

The initiative also includes therapeutic care for adolescents who commit child sexual abuse, with the goal set by ILAS to interrupt possible cycles of violence.

For Viniegra, prevention begins with adults willing to listen to, believe, and protect children.

“We need to adapt to the needs of families and children so that they truly feel safe to report abuse,” she concluded.

To learn more about ILAS.

Source: Siete24.mx