Moving school-based CSA prevention education online: Advantages and challenges of the “new normal”

One of the many outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic was a shift in the delivery of elementary (primary) education. Schools transitioned swiftly to e-learning and prioritized education that was already or could be easily adapted to virtual formats. Given the paucity of online content available, it is not likely that child sexual abuse (CSA) prevention education was prioritized. Given that CSA prevention education has demonstrated success in increasing knowledge, protective behaviors, and disclosures, and the potential long-term need for e-learning options, there is a demand for an exploration of how CSA prevention can be implemented using e-learning strategies. In the current discussion, we explore how school-based CSA prevention education could be implemented in a “new normal” context of e-learning. We first present the existing e-learning content for CSA prevention education. We then describe how best practices for prevention education can be applied to e-learning. Finally, we present considerations for the use of e-learning specifically for CSA prevention education. In short, implementing CSA prevention programs through e-learning offers many affordances for program accessibility and reach, flexibility in implementation and opportunities for greater exposure to content, and a wide range of ways to demonstrate effective skills and engage children in cycles of practice and feedback. E-learning, may also, however, limit important conversations between children and trained instructors that lead to disclosures. The extant literature leaves us unsure as to whether implementing CSA prevention programs through e-learning will result in better or worse outcomes for children. However, given the increasing demand for e-learning options, and the promise of some new e-learning programs, further research on the effectiveness of e-learning CSA prevention programs is warranted.