Right now, in Connecticut, child sexual abuse survivors can lose their right to seek justice before they are even ready to speak up. Most survivors don’t disclose child sexual abuse right away. Trauma, fear, shame, and manipulation often delay disclosure for decades, especially for those victimized as children. Yet, statutes of limitations unforgivingly move forward. When the statute of limitations expires, survivors are permanently shut out of court without access to accountability or justice.

I know because it happened to me. When I was 14 years old in Connecticut, sexual abuse images of me were spread online. I was harassed for years. By the time I was able to come forward, the courthouse doors were closed.

Today, it’s worse. Technology allows abuse to spread instantly and globally. Abuse images can and often do live online forever. Artificial intelligence can generate synthetic sexual images from a young person’s social media photos. Anonymous platforms make it easier for perpetrators to hide. 

Reports involving generative AI sexual exploitation have skyrocketed nationwide in just one year. Now, children are being exploited at scale, and survivors are being silenced by arbitrary time limits that fail to acknowledge trauma, healing, and the need for safety as minors.

This is not about partisan politics. This is about whether Connecticut stands with children or whether they stand with arbitrary and harmful procedural deadlines that only benefit abusers. 

We are calling on Connecticut lawmakers to:

• Eliminate civil statutes of limitations for child sexual abuse survivors so that justice is not restricted by trauma-imposed silence;
  Add technology-specific provisions to address online and AI-generated abuse, ensuring the law keeps pace with modern forms of exploitation; and 
  Create a lookback window, so survivors whose claims were previously time-barred can finally pursue justice and accountability. 
• If this cannot move forward this session, we are asking for a public commitment to prioritize the elimination of statute of limitations next legislative session. 

Now more than ever, survivors are watching. Children are counting on you. Justice should not depend on how fast a child processes trauma. Justice should never expire for the most vulnerable among us.

Sign our petition to demand that Connecticut act to protect children and support survivors right now.