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Pillar

Prevention

Overview

83.3/100
Colombia (top score)
42.9/100
Average score
0.0/100
Niger (lowest score)
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Ensuring no child or adolescent experiences sexual violence.

For decades, evidence has shown that when governments invest in effective prevention strategies, violence can be reduced.  

The Index assesses whether national governments have enacted policies and programs to both respond to and prevent sexual violence against children and adolescents. 

While the Index tracks whether laws and policies are in place, it does not capture the quality or reach of their implementation.

As a global community, we must invest in proven solutions like these to stop sexual violence before it starts. These include: 

  • Requiring background checks for people working with children and adolescents 
  • Educating children and adolescents on sexual violence by building awareness of what it is and how to disclose it, and encouraging them to seek help  
  • Supporting parents through home-visiting or center-based programs to reduce vulnerability to violence and increase early identification of it  
  • Training healthcare providers to identify and respond to sexual violence against children and adolescents
  • Ensuring access to a child helpline that operates 24 hours a day / 7 days a week by phone and text and offers basic counseling and referrals

Data explorer

Governments must do more

  • Colombia leads globally with a score of 83. Colombia and Kazakhstan are the only two countries that mandate training for primary care physicians on sexual violence against children. 
  • Australia and the United Kingdom follow with a score of 80.
  • Too few countries are equipping children with the knowledge they need: only 15% of countries in the Index, including India, Nepal, Jamaica, Mexico, and Mongolia, provide comprehensive life-skills-based education that includes content on online safety, as well as how to recognize and seek help for abuse. 
  • Only 10 countries in the Index, including South Africa, Guatemala, Serbia, and Romania require background checks for people working in direct contact with children across settings.
  • Access to support also remains uneven. Fewer than half of the countries offer a 24/7 helpline for children with both voice and messaging options. 
  • More than two-thirds of countries provide parent support or home-visiting programs to reduce vulnerability to harm. But countries need to do more to reach more families and strengthen parents’ skills to prevent, recognize, and respond to violence against children. 

Invest in proven solutions to stop sexual violence before it starts

As a global community, this includes: 

  • Requiring background checks for people working with children and adolescents 
  • Educating children and adolescents on sexual violence by building awareness of what it is and how to disclose, and encouraging help-seeking  
  • Supporting parents through home-visiting or center-based programs to reduce vulnerability to violence and increase early identification  
  • Training healthcare providers to identify and respond to sexual violence against children and adolescents
  • Ensuring access to a helpline that operates 24/7 by phone and text and offers basic counseling and referrals

How Prevention connects to other pillars

The Prevention pillar does not work in isolation. A child’s safety depends on multiple themes working together:

  • Governance and accountability: Does a national survivor council exist, and is it consulted on prevention efforts? Does the national action plan include prevention strategies? Is the budget funding school-based programs and helplines?
  • Healing: Are health workers trained to recognize sexual violence (2.4) and refer children and adolescents to the mental health and medical services measured by the Healing pillar?
  • Justice: Do background check requirements (2.3) connect to the laws against sexual violence measured by the Justice pillar? Does the curriculum include online safety (2.1) alongside legal protections against online grooming (4.4)?

Advocacy tip

If you find a gap in the Prevention pillar, check the related indicators in other themes. A weak score on education for students (2.1) may connect to the absence of a national action plan that includes prevention (1.2.1). Building a cross-theme ‘ask’ strengthens your advocacy.

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Data driving change

Third Richest Nation

www.bravemovement.org/campaigns/third-richest-nation

A world without childhood violence would be $7 trillion richer. This nation isn’t real. Its wealth could be. Brave Movement's survivor-led advocacy campaign at the G20 in 2025 pressured decision makers to invest in prevention, healing and justice to create stronger, happier nations.

#BeBrave G7 Scorecard 2025

www.bravemovement.org/g7

By evaluating each G7 nation’s progress on vital policy measures we're drawing global attention to the global, silent pandemic of sexual violence against children. This is a crisis that undermines the G7's commitment to building secure, prosperous, and equitable societies. Kids need bold leadership and decisive action now to be safe and thrive.

Break the record

www.togetherforgirls.org/en/press/a-record-breaking-event-now-governments-must-deliver

We broke the GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ for the most countries represented at a childhood violence summit! With 120 governments attending, this first ever Global Ministerial Conference on Ending Violence Against Children was the largest organized event to address this issue on a global scale. Most importantly, as a result, we also broke the world’s record of inaction against childhood sexual violence.