Growing Up Safe: how telling a new story can prevent childhood sexual violence 

Image © Emilia Ismael

When talking about child sexual abuse, narratives can play a persuasive, active role in prevention. The focus and terminology reflect the principles of a new guide called Growing Up Safe: A narrative and messaging guide to prevent childhood sexual violence. 

This guide, from To Zero, a global initiative that supports and empowers the community working to end childhood sexual violence, reframes how we can all talk about keeping children safe worldwide. The guide focuses on prevention, solutions, collective action, and hope. It gives child protection practitioners tools to communicate positively about their work and advance a new survivor-centred, hope-based narrative. 

To Zero brings together individuals, organisations, and communities worldwide around a shared vision. Together, they work to accelerate progress towards a future where children and adolescents can thrive, and live safe and healthy lives. “Practical, scalable solutions to end childhood sexual violence exist. Yet dominant narratives continue to frame it as inevitable,” says Sean Coughlan, director of To Zero. “When coverage defaults to fear and sensationalism, we fuel despair instead of catalysing hope.” 

In its January 2025 report, A Vision To Zero, To Zero sets out a roadmap to build a collective pathway to end childhood sexual violence and tackle the prevailing sense of fatalism and taboo surrounding it. The report outlines Action Accelerators – eight priority actions that can deliver transformative change over the next five years. 

One of its Action Accelerators is “Transforming the narratives”. Within this stream of work, the new Growing Up Safe guide is a key step forward, setting out concrete ways that practitioners can bring hope and action to the fore. Co-created with strategic communicators at Spitfire Strategies and developed with input from leaders and survivors across the field (including at a Narrative Summit in September 2025) the guide is informed by a review of more than 400 recent news articles on childhood sexual violence across six continents.  

Growing Up Safe calls for aspirational messaging that emphasises prevention, highlights solutions, reduces stigma, and instils hope. “We must reframe this as an issue we can prevent and solve together, rather than a matter of individual failings,” Sean says. “The guide supports organisations to showcase examples of prevention and evidence-based solutions, centre survivor voices, and present a hopeful vision of a world where we all share responsibility for keeping children safe.” 

Growing Up Safe includes examples of how to integrate topline themes into an organisation’s everyday communications and recommends activities that create more opportunities to use new messaging – such as media partnerships and tapping into cultural moments. 

Although practical in focus, the guide is strategic about the progress it hopes to track. From conversations at home, to media headlines, and even the decisions made at the highest levels of government and business, Growing Up Safe is the foundation for change. 

“We hope that changing the narrative will lead to more open discussions between parents and children, as well as more media coverage that focuses on prevention and solutions,” says Sean. “The natural follow-on to this will be empowering survivors to feel more confident sharing their insights, celebrating the work that organisations are doing to tackle childhood sexual violence, and building the spaces, both online and offline, that allow children to grow up safe and thrive.”  

Oak supports To Zero as part of our Prevent Child Sexual Abuse Programme, supporting a safer world where children can thrive. Child sexual abuse is preventable. This fact drives our commitment to end child sexual abuse online and offline. Our grant-making focuses on bringing together: powerful data and solutions; strong accountability mechanisms; and vibrant leaders, organisations, and movements. You can read more about our partnership with To Zero and its network here.