How Are Youth-Serving Organizations Keeping Kids Safe?
October 21, 2025
Over the past few decades, the revelations of institutional child sexual abuse—from churches and sports organizations to schools and after-school programs—have shaken public trust and sparked a massive overhaul of how youth-serving organizations approach child safety. While these changes have undoubtedly been widespread, an essential question remains: Are they actually working? Are children actually safer?
We explored this in an episode of our One in Ten podcast, “Enforcing The Institutional Boundaries that Keep Kids Safe,” published on February 13, 2025. Host and NCA CEO Teresa Huizar spoke with Dr. Luciana Assini-Meytin at the Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Abuse at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health about her research that shed light on how policies and procedures within youth-serving organizations (YSOs) are showing promise in reducing child sexual abuse, especially when institutions commit to long-term implementation of strict boundaries and codes of conduct.
The Big Six and a Decline in Abuse
The research focused on six of the largest and longest-operating youth-serving organizations in the U.S. that the team dubbed the “Big Six.”
“They provided us with over 150 files,” Dr. Assini-Meytin said. “Codes of conduct, training policies…anything that they had written or recorded pertaining to child sexual abuse prevention and response.”
“We did identify a 20 percent decline in child sexual abuse by adults when comparing these two cohorts in these big six organizations,” Dr. Assini-Meytin said.
When people hear the term “grooming,” they often think of overtly predatory behavior. But Dr. Assini-Meytin and her colleagues emphasize the importance of looking at boundary violating behaviors, actions that may or may not be grooming but still break rules designed to protect children.
“These are behaviors that can be grooming or not,” Dr. Assini-Meytin said. “They are potential antecedents of child sexual abuse, comprising of more subtle forms of behavior that may be innocuous.”
Examples may include giving a child a ride in a private vehicle, providing gifts, or contacting a child outside of organizational settings.
The study categorized these behaviors into four types:
1. Ingratiating Contact (treating a child as special, gift-giving)
2. Rule Violations (i.e., giving drugs or alcohol)
3. Contact with Family outside organizational scope
4. Sexual Misconduct, often non-contact but potentially escalating
The importance of addressing these behaviors, even when it may seem harmless, lies in the fact that they overstep professional boundaries and can create opportunities for abuse.
Why the Big Six Are Leading the Way
So, what are these organizations doing right? The research team uncovered a wide array of protective measures: staff training, clear policies on adult-child interaction, and perhaps most importantly, codes of conduct that explicitly define what is acceptable and what is not.
Examples include:
– Prohibiting staff from transporting children in personal vehicles.
– Banning one-on-one contact without transparency (e.g., closed-door meetings).
– Restricting gift-giving, texting, and social media contact.
– Clear boundaries on physical contact
These rules help normalize professional boundaries.
“Codes of conduct should be normalized,” Dr. Assini-Meytin said. “They clarify what’s expected of adults in positions of authority and help parents and children recognize when something is off.”
These policies don’t just affect the child’s experience within the organization—they create ripple effects.
“When a parent sees a boundary upheld in one setting, they may be more likely to question inappropriate behavior in another,” Dr. Assini-Meytin said.
Why Schools and Other Settings Lag Behind
Unfortunately, not all institutions are seeing the same improvements. The study found no comparable decline in child sexual abuse in K–12 schools, sports, and religious institutions—and in some cases, an increase in sexual misconduct.
Why? According to Dr. Assini-Meytin:
– Lack of standardized codes of conduct
– Training programs that don’t directly address abuse by educators or school personnel
– Failure to tailor policies to digital communication and new forms of contact
“I hypothesize that these trainings don’t directly address educator sexual misconduct or abuse by adults in schools,” she said. “There’s often no clear code of conduct regulating how teachers can communicate with students, especially electronically. That lack of clarity creates a dangerous gray area.”
She said that while Erin’s Law has spurred prevention education in schools across the U.S., the trainings often emphasize general signs of abuse rather than the specific risks posed by teachers, coaches, or school staff.
Parents can become advocates for safer environments. According to Dr. Assini‑Meytin ask:
– “Do you have any code of conduct that regulates the interaction between the adults and children?”
– Is the code of conduct visible, accessible, and enforced?
– Are there clear rules on communication—especially electronic—and “alone time”?
By prioritizing professional behavior, institutions can transform spaces—from classrooms to camps—into truly protective environments. Parents, teachers, coaches, and leaders carry these insights forward and champion real change.
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Listen to the full episode with Dr. Assini-Meyton
