To: Lawmakers, Child Protection Agencies, Judicial Systems, Human Rights Organisations, and Every Adult Who Claims to Care About Children

We demand an end to the cowardly, complicit and disgraceful silence surrounding Child On Child Sexual Abuse (COCSA). We demand justice for children who have been raped, violated and driven to suicide - not by adults, but by other children.

Let’s stop lying:
Children can rape. Children can torture. Children can destroy other children.
It is time to stop pretending they can’t just because the truth is inconvenient. It is an uncomfortable truth, but a truth we must take face on. When we ignore this, abuse elevates. A 5 year old girl was gang raped by several 5 year old boys in a local Australian school. She was cornered, pinned down, had her underwear ripped off and raped digitally by numerous 5 year old boys. She had to urinate under anesthetisa for several days due to excessive bruising and bleeding in her cervix. Teachers cleaned her up, refused to inform parents. It took over a week in order for parents to be informed. No arrests. No charges. No accountability.
Gabriel, a 7-year-old boy, was repeatedly sexually abused by another child in foster care. Gabriel begged for help, recognition or change, yet he was ignored. Gabriel is no longer with us. He ended up killing himself due to the severity of the abuse. At age seven. This outcome was completely preventable, but was enabled through adults refusal to believe a child could be capable of that level of cruelty.
How many more children have to die before we stop covering for rapists just because they’re under 10?

We are calling for an end to the denial, minimisation and institutional cowardice surrounding COCSA. Every day, children are raping, sexually torturing and psychologically destroying other children - and the response from our systems is silence, euphemisms and protection for perpetrators.

This is not "curiosity."
This is not "sexual behavior problems."
This is molestation.
This is sexual abuse.
This is torture.
This is rape.

The majority of perpetrators of COCSA are not victims themselves. The extent of their abuse is so extensive that adult are unable to fathom that this is not learned behaviour. 7% of perpetrators were previously exposed to pornography. Only 12% were previously victimised, and a whopping 38% were simply distanced from parents. This is not caused by trauma, this is caused by lack of supervision. And to even imply that all child sexual offenders were victimised themselves is to state that all child sexual abuse victims will inevitably sexually abuse another child/person. This is a harmful and dangerous lie. Trauma explains behavior, but it does not justify it.
We must stop turning perpetrators into victims and erasing the children they hurt in the process.

You don't get given the ability to receive consequences or be held accountable on your 18th birthday, so when is rape justified? Never.