Mobile Phones as a Tool for Empowering Children Who Are Victims of Sexual Abuse to Express Themselves Freely

Keywords: Mobile phones, children, sexually abused children, trauma.

Sexual abuse against children is a traumatizing experience not in children only, but also in adult due to the nature of the act itself and cultural perception about sexual matters. Children are more vulnerable because they cannot defend themselves and how the social norms instilled to the children about sexual matters including sexual violence in African perspective for the case of Tanzania. This cause children refrain from discussing and disclosing sexual violence incidence in case of occurrence. To avoid such shame, fear and anxiety in face to face disclosures of their traumatizing experience, mobile phone is suggested tool that can empower the victims of sexually abused children where they can freely express their tortured experiences to counselor and other agencies dealing with sexually abused children.
This presentation is discussing how mobile phones can be utilized in helping sexually abused children to freely disclose and be healed from sexual abuse trauma.