Sexual harassment is the most common form of bullying and according to statistics is the most common among teenagers. This behavior is manifested by an individual or group harassing another person or group through comments that have a sexual connotation. Sexual harassment can also be through social media and is also known as cyberbullying. As a result of sexual harassment, teenagers are the target of gossip by the people around them, they become ignored, insulted, ashamed and intimidated. Unlike physical harassment, sexual harassment is more difficult to detect because it leaves no physical trace and is much harder to prove existed, given the fact that a person who is sexually harassed has no physical evidence of it, and often tries to hide that she is a victim of sexual harassment.
If a parent or adult who is sufficiently aware and conscientious is in a situation to witness sexual harassment, he or she should respond accordingly. Parents should also talk to their children about sexual harassment and what healthy sexual development means. If a parent suspects that their child is a victim of sexual abuse, they should give their child a chance and an opportunity to open up and talk to you about the embarrassing situation.
What is meant by sexual harassment?
Comments with sexual connotations, jokes with sexual connotations, as well as comments with sexual connotations make a person feel upset, ashamed, scared, it can mean that it is sexual harassment.
Sexual harassment may include the following actions and comments:
- Making sexual jokes or comments about someone
- Commenting on someone’s sexual orientation or sexual activity
- Making sexual gestures for someone
- Grabbing someone’s clothes or brushing against them in a deliberately sexual way
- Call someone sexually explicit and offensive names
- Touching, grabbing or squeezing someone in a deliberately sexual way
- Post sexually explicit comments, pictures, or videos on social media sites like Facebook
- Spreading sexual rumors or gossip in person, by text or online
- Press someone to participate in the sexting to show commitment or love
- Downloading other people online and making sexual comments or offers on their behalf
- Sending sexually explicit text messages and inappropriate images via text message, also known as sectioning
- Transmitting sexually explicit text messages and inappropriate images via text or e-mail
- Sharing inappropriate sex videos or pictures
- Engaging in a quarrel or shameful gossip that is sexual in nature
Why is sexual harassment so common in children?
There are many reasons why children are the most common target and most often involved in sexual harassment, but still among the main reasons are for example improving social status within the school, need for self-promotion, need for attention, envy, jealousy, fear of self-developed sexuality .
Those children who have a problem with their feelings, ie they feel powerless and weak, then they need to bully other children in order to raise themselves. A possible cause of sexual harassment is sexual harassment that they themselves have experienced in the past. To restore a certain level of control in life, the child needs to direct insults and bullying to others. This allows them to take control of their lives and feel empowered again.
In adolescents, these phenomena are still the most common. During this period, children have a high opinion of themselves and it is extremely important to them what their peers will say and think about them. Very often, boys know how to sexually assault girls their age in order to gain acceptance from their peers that they are sexually experienced. Girls can focus on bullying other girls, calling them various derogatory names in an attempt to diminish the bullying girl’s social status.
Some sexual abusers elevate themselves (or at least think so) by telling a juicy sex story and spreading various rumors and negative details about another person. Those girls who are more prominent in social life or popular, thus enjoy the attention they provoke and are satisfied with the misery experienced by others.
Most often, girls are sexually harassed, with the very fact that they are jealous of a girl, her appearance or intelligence or similar. Whatever the reason, girls need to make the girl they are sexually harassing less desirable. This type of relational aggression involves things like sharing sexual secrets or spreading lies and rumors about the sexual activity of the target.
Sometimes teenagers also experience sexual harassment simply because they see what others around them are doing. Impacts may include movies, television, music, but most of all the lives and behavior of the people around them. Whether it is a reality TV show, an older sibling, a friend, a parent, or even a group of neighbors, children often model their behavior according to what is in front of them.
