Teen Dating Violence Awareness Week

Do you or someone you know have a teen dating? How often do you really check your child's cell phone bill? Are you checking to see if they have gone over their minutes? Or are you checking to see who is calling/texting them? How often are they receiving these calls? Is your child getting any sleep at night? Or are the calls/text messages coming in all night long?

10 Teen Dating Abuse Facts

Physical and sexual abuse is the most often talked about piece of dating abuse.

• One1 in five teens who have been in a serious relationship report being hit, slapped, or pushed by a partner.
• One in three teenagers report knowing a friend or peer who has been hit, punched, kicked, slapped, choked or physically hurt by their partner.
• One in four teenage girls who have been in relationships reveal they have been pressured to perform oral sex or engage in intercourse.

However, dating abuse doesn’t have to be physical. It can include verbal and emotional abuse and controlling behaviors.

• More than one in four teenage girls in a relationship report enduring repeated verbal abuse.
• One-third or more of teens who have been in a relationship have been with a partner who frequently asked where they were and whom they were with.
• One in four teens who have been in a serious relationship say their boyfriend or girlfriend has tried to prevent them from spending time with friends or family; the same number have been pressured to only spend time with their partner.
• Nearly one in five teenage girls who have been in a relationship said a boyfriend had threatened violence or self-harm if presented with a break-up.

As technologies like cell phones and social networking become a common form of communication, they can also be used to abuse and control.

• One in three teens (30 percent) say they are text messaged 10, 20, or 30 times an hour by a partner inquiring where they are, what they're doing, or who they're with.
• 68 percent of teens say boyfriends/girlfriends sharing private or embarrassing pictures/videos on cell phones and computers is a serious problem.
• 71 percent of teens regard boyfriends/girlfriends spreading rumors about them on cell phones and social networking sites as a serious problem.
  

Sources:
Teenage Research Unlimited (http://www.loveisnotabuse.com/surveyresults.htm)
Technology & Teen Dating Abuse Survey, 2007
Teen Dating Abuse Survey, 2006
Teen Dating Abuse Survey, 2005