However, I must take exception to one of the items that you list as a way to protect your children, and that is: “Don’t leave your children with teenage boy babysitters because they are hormonal and impulsive.”

I take exception for a few reasons. The first is the implication that the sexual abuse of a child has anything to do with sex. It doesn’t, it’s about power and control. The act of abusing a child like that isn’t because a boy wants sex, it’s because they are exercising power and control over someone else, and this is the method that they know how to use.

Secondly, boy babysitters can be wonderful companions for kids, and it can be an especially good lesson for little boys to have older boys acting as role models, and playing with them in that way that boys can. My own son, who is 16, babysits for a number of kids in our neighborhood and is very popular. It’s a great way for him to learn responsibility, to make some spending money, and the kids that he babysits love that he rough-houses with them in a way that their girl babysitters rarely would.

Thanks for letting me comment.