Our kids’ personal safety, where do we even begin? Child sexual abuse prevention - with Alison Geale, CEO of Bravehearts

**This episode discusses child sexual abuse. Please listen with care and reach out to a support service if you need to speak to someone. Visit ChildSafety.gov.au/Get-Support for a list of services.** We speak to Alison Geale, CEO of Bravehearts, who works to provide a holistic approach to the prevention and treatment of child sexual abuse. This is a big but important topic and we’ve gathered your top questions to help educate us on having personal safety conversations with our kids. We discuss… What are age-appropriate discussions to have regarding personal safety? Bringing up big topics if you’re feeling awkward Moving beyond ‘stranger danger’  Identifying the red flags of grooming The importance of asking our kids questions as conversation starters What to do if children disclose a safety concern with you “It might feel bad, it might feel good but it’s not right” - explaining physical responses to abuse How can we give our kids a safe childhood with these worries in mind? Sharing your child safety boundaries with other families Peer-on-peer sexual abuse - what it is and what steps to take What are developmentally expected sexual behaviors? Nappy changes to doctor visits, how do we explain what a safe scenario looks like? Knowing the power of these preventative and supportive conversations Additional links: Bravehearts ‘Protecting Children and Young People from Sexual Abuse: A Guide for Parents & Carers’ - Free Download Child Safety online resources to teach body safety This episode is brought to you by The Australian Government’s One Talk at a Time campaign, which is all about the little conversations that help keep our kids safe. Beyond the Bump is hosted by Jayde Couldwell (@londonxboston) and Sophie Pearce (@svpearce) Come say hey over on Instagram @beyondthebump.podcast TikTok @beyondthebumppodcast Facebook - Beyond the Bump Community Chats group  Sign up to our monthly newsletter here for BTS, recommendations, outfits and more. If you’d love to partner with the podcast, send us an episode idea or find out more, you can over here.  We couldn’t do this without you, Bumpies. If you’re liking what you’re hearing, we’d love it if you could send us to a mama mate or leave a 5 star review.