My Body Belongs to Me!

I recently had an email from Hollyann Martin regarding an animated short film on YouTube called 'My Body Belongs to Me':

Hollyann and I had an email chat about this resource and I said I would be interested to hear what other PBPeople think.
One of the positive things is that the makers are happy for people to copy it and have voice-overs with different accents or even languages.
Some of the less positive things, in my opinion, are:
What if a parent isn't on the child's network and what if the teacher isn't either.
What if the mouth is used as an area for abuse? (Hollyann said that she had brought this up with the makers and in fact with everyone she spoke with at the 2 conferences she attended in the USA in March).
Hollyann said: "No one I spoke to is teaching that the mouth is a private part, which I found unbelievable, especially with my experiences in remote communities here is OZ. I just couldn’t get through to them with the amount of porn being consumed by children, that this was an area that needed to be addressed. So I thought all of this chat would be good for other people to be part of".
Many thanks Hollyann for sharing this resource and looking forward to hearing what other PBPeople think.
:huh:

Thanks for posting Sally Ann

What do you think?

When using the clip I would encourage further discussion about other people who could be on children’s Network as they only talk about telling parents and teachers. What if parents or teachers don’t believe them or are busy etc? And as Sally Ann mentioned
teaching that children’s mouth are private.

See what you think.

Please feel free to post on your facebook pages or forward to your Networks if you like it. There are many great things about the video and as far as I’m concerned the more resources to help parents and teachers talk about abuse prevention with children the better.

Hi, I've just had a look at this and think it is lovely in its simplicity. However from a PB's point of view the vocal narrative does just talk about mum dad and teacher. The written narrative is a bit better as it talks about a safe adult. I understand the bit about wanting the mouth to be regarded as a private part but in thinking how that could be done in this cartoon, my thoughts were a bit more challenged. The whole narrative was very understated and if the same approach was taken for the mouth this may be confusing to little ones. So I was left unsure how this could have been done in this simple animation and text. I think I do agree with the other comments though that this animation will be best used when used as a vehicle for discussion to expand on safe adult and private parts.
Melanie

Thanks Melanie - echo your comments and then tried to apply further PB principles, because the beauty for me about PBs is it simplicity and accessibility for all. So one thing that instantly came to mind was Early Warning Signs (EWS) in that 'we can talk with someone about anything even if it is awful or small. So if a person has their EWS they are encouraged to talk with someone about it. (I love the clip in the film Madeline where the nun wags her finger as she says 'there's something not quite right' and goes to discover that Madeline is poorly. Also reminds me of conversations with the children where I had my EWS and would say, 'I've got my EWS - humour me, I'm your mother").
And the reason in PBs we put 'Adults at home' on the thumb is so that 'all our eggs aren't in one basket' as the EWS might be to do with an adult at home. At least 5 network people (people who will listen, believe and do something/help us to do something) are crucial. So much of my work with children and adults has been about building networks and this seems to be getting more tricky in the current economic climate where so many services and agencies are no longer around. Thank goodness Children's Centres are on my network!
One further thought for now is that by teaching about EWS we can empower all people to talk about anything - it is not just sexual abuse that leaves people feeling unsafe. And if we can teach PBs to children right from the word go by asking permission to touch/cuddle rather than playing 'pass the baby' we are recognising their right to feel safe and respecting their voice. This link will take you to the website of the wonderful Pennie Brownlee who I sadly didn't know when my children were small, but am so grateful I do now. Pennie's articles on respect are so consistent with PBs in my opinion, hope you think so too.
That's all for now - know there will be some more thoughts especially when reading what other PBPeople have to say.

Thanks for sharing this video. It is admirable of anyone to try and tackle issues surrounding sexual abuse of children head-on, in a form that attempts to communicate to children using simple language and accessible visuals.

After watching the video a number of times, trying to clarify my thoughts and responses to it, I decided to share it with my own children aged 8 ,7 and 5 (they are very safe-aware/savvy so they are well-informed critics in terms of watching and responding to this type of video) to see what they thought. Their responses were a stark reminder that it is never so simple to see the world through a child's eye, try as we might. I thought the animation, the child's voice, and use of colour in the video were real strengths, but the eldest and youngest children (aged 8 and 5) found the changing colours 'scary'. I have shared videos with them before which deal with content of a serious nature, it was definitely the presentation they found ‘scary’ in this case rather than the content. They also struggled to keep up with the messages at the end when it becomes very text-based and fast paced, although after watching twice, they were able to recap the key points. It served to reinforce for them what they already know, but for children without such pre-embedded knowledge as our three have, I am not sure it would be as effective?? I imagine though, the video would provide a starting point for the adults to build on, invoking some key discussion with children.

One other main element that I wondered about was the transformation of the child becoming a superhero after making the disclosure. I completely see where the creators were going with this in terms of hoping to project a sense of empowerment onto the child, but wondered if children in real life, who had been touched in a sexually inappropriate way, would feel like that after telling someone?

Lots to think about, and more importantly, lots to keep talking about.
Thanks again for sharing.