Utah law requires anyone who has reason to believe a child is being abused to report it, but recognizing abuse is not always easy. The Washington County Children's Justice Center is urging residents to learn the warning signs, trust their instincts and report their concerns rather than second-guessing themselves.
Reporting abuse is the focus of the “It’s Your Business” campaign from the National Children’s Alliance, the national accrediting body for children’s advocacy centers, said Kristy Pike, director of the Washington County Children’s Justice Center.
“If you believe a child is being abused, or have reason to believe a child is being abused, by law, you need to report that,” Pike said. “Here in Utah, we’re mandatory reporters.”
The “It’s Your Business” campaign was recently highlighted in the center’s monthly newsletter and promotes bystander awareness of child abuse with an emphasis on reporting suspected abuse.
Pike noted that identifying possible abuse requires attention to behavioral and physical changes, some of which can overlap with trauma responses or typical childhood issues. She cautioned against assumptions based on a child’s living situation or resources.
“We want to make sure that we don’t think that just because a child might be homeless or under-resourced, that that means they’re being abused. Those aren’t the same things,” Pike said. “Children who have experienced trauma, including abuse, can sometimes have some of those issues with grooming and behavior. So a lot of the things that we look at as being bad, just bad behavior, actually can be a trauma response as well.”
The Washington County Children’s Justice Center and the broader Utah Children’s Justice Center Program encourage the public to watch for these 10 signs of possible abuse:
- Unexplained injuries.
- Changes in behavior.
- Returning to earlier behaviors.
- Fear of going home.
- Changes in eating.
- Changes in sleeping.
- Changes in school performance or attendance.
- Lack of personal care or hygiene.
- Risk-taking behaviors.
- Inappropriate sexual behaviors.
Pike said school-based prevention programs are effective because they help children understand appropriate and inappropriate behavior. Young children who are being sexually abused may not even recognize it as abuse until they receive clear information.
“What we know is that child abuse prevention programming in the schools works,” Pike said. “It helps kids know what’s appropriate and what’s inappropriate, and sometimes a child, especially a young child, can be being abused, especially sexually abused, and not even know that it’s abuse until somebody tells them so.”
One such program helped lead to the arrest of a man who was subsequently charged with multiple child sex abuse offenses earlier this year. A student went to a teacher following a program about signs of abuse they had experienced, and the authorities were notified soon after.
Statewide, Pike said authorities have seen an increase in severe physical abuse and child torture cases. Utah passed a child torture law during the 2025 legislative session that defines the offense and makes it a first-degree felony carrying a minimum mandatory sentence. There wasn’t a solid definition of child torture in the Utah code prior to the 2025 law.
Washington County helped lead the effort, Pike said, with Sen. Don Ibsen sponsoring the bill and then-County Attorney Eric Clark and Pike testifying before the Legislature.
“We didn’t even know we didn’t have a definition for child torture in Utah until we passed the law a little over a year ago in the 2025 session,” Pike said. “Now that we’ve defined it and we know what it is, we thought that law would be used two, three times a year. In the first year, it was charged over 12 times in our state. That’s way more than we had anticipated.”
Pike said many adults remain uncomfortable discussing sexual abuse or sexuality with children because the topic was not modeled for them growing up.
She stressed that education at home should consist of many small, age-appropriate conversations rather than one big talk, and that children need this information earlier than many parents realize.
“My parents didn’t talk to me about sex abuse or about anything sexual, for that matter, and so we didn’t have it modeled,” Pike said of her generation. “We haven’t modeled it very well. We aren’t always comfortable talking to our kids about sexual abuse or having the talk with kids. And really, it’s not a talk. It’s lots of little talks. It’s age-appropriate as you go. They need it sooner than we think they need it. We’re seeing cases of sextortion with children who are still in elementary school. Kids should learn at home, and parents have just got to be able to at least act comfortable with the topic.”
Pike said she has observed generational improvement, with today’s parents generally more open to using correct anatomical terms with young children and understanding consent. She expressed hope that today’s teenagers will help drive further progress.
Reports of suspected child abuse should be made to the Division of Child and Family Services hotline at 1-855-323-3237 or to local law enforcement. If a child is in immediate danger, call 911.
Pike urged parents and other adults to position themselves as the safe, approachable people children will actually turn to with questions or concerns about sex, relationships or possible abuse. Otherwise, she warned, children often seek information from peers, social media, AI platforms or online games.
“We want parents to be the ones the kids come to, because otherwise, if they don’t know something, they’re asking ChatGPT, they’re asking AI and they’re asking Google. And what they find can be devastating,” Pike said.
She added that even with filters and monitoring in place, perpetrators often know how to bypass them. Therefore, adults must also teach children protective principles so they can recognize when interactions feel inappropriate.
"No matter how many filters you have, and no matter how carefully you think you're watching their accounts, perpetrators know the way around your filters," Pike said. "Not only do we need to protect our kids in all the ways that we know how, we need to give kids the tools they need to protect themselves. We need to teach them the principles so that they know when they are getting sketchy."
Anyone who suspects child abuse is encouraged to report it immediately through the statewide hotline or local authorities. The center’s resources, including awareness materials listing the 10 signs, are available online at utahcjc.org/local-centers.