Sharon Walker Epps, CEO of the Rowan Center in Stamford says getting the right help to deal with the undeniable realities of childhood in the modern age can be daunting.
“How do I talk about consent,” Epps said. “How do I talk about online influences like Andrew Tate, who spews nothing but misogyny. How do I talk about that with my kids? How are kids using AI chatbots?”
But now a new tool by the Rowan Center will act as a one stop shop for parents. It’s a website called KidSafeHQ, created by the Rowan Center with a $100,000 grant given by Impact Fairfield County.
Epps and other employees at the center say the new site, which launched Friday, has a searchable FAQ, conversation guides, an AI chatbot to help parents, and is frequently updated to reflect the latest in best practices and child exploitation prevention efforts.
But the site, according to Rowan Center employees likeCody Baird, doesn’t just help parents spot the signs of sexual abuse and grooming.
Baird says it also helps parents learn the risks children face. Some of those risks include sextortion, the threat of releasing intimate photos of a victim in exchange for money or sex, and even children engaging in relationships with AI chatbots, which have been reported to have played a part in the suicides of several children.
Ironically, KidSafeHQ, also uses an AI chat bot, called Scout, which Baird said has safeguards in place.
“Scout is a closed system. It's trained exclusively on knowledge our team has vetted whether it's child safety research, whether it's prevention expertise, whether it's the education that we provide in schools, nothing else gets in; it doesn't evolve,” Baird said.
The platform has so far received bipartisan support throughout the state. Several state and federal elected officials from Lt. Governor Susan Bysiewicz, Sen/ Richard Blumenthal, Norwalk Mayor Barbara Smyth, Stamford Mayor Caroline Simmons to State Rep. Stephen Harding attended the rollout and praised the platform.
Harding said he hopes it gains statewide reach.
“This is Fairfield County today, but in my district, I hope it's Litchfield County after that,” Harding said. “I hope it's Windham County. I hope it's New London County. This should be all across our state.”
“In Connecticut, 70% of children have seen a sexually explicit image by third grade,” Epps said. “They're eight. They still believe in Santa Claus, and this is what they're seeing.”
While the site has resources available to help parents navigate these topics, others say the problem of child sexual exploitation now encompasses problems that didn’t exist two decades ago, and can only be addressed with a multifaceted approach.
Dahlia Edidin Locke, the policy and education manager at World Without Exploitation said learning the signs of grooming can no longer be relegated to individuals. Edidin Locke said . social media is now inundated with constant and sustained messaging normalizing the commercial sex trade including the website OnlyFans.
Locke said the solution lies not just in federal legislation, but rethinking sex education.
“What I think it's going to take to rectify that is serious cultural change that starts with early, inclusive and what I mean by that is gender and sexuality sensitive and specific, inclusive sex education,” Locke said.
