1. Victims and survivors often said that the adults around them failed to notice that they were being sexually abused as a child, despite clear signs. Many described significant and often insurmountable hurdles to telling anyone what was happening to them. Sixty-seven percent of Truth Project participants did not tell anyone that they were being sexually abused at the time of the abuse.^[1] A higher proportion of Truth Project participants of Asian ethnicity (73 percent) than of white (66 percent), black (68 percent) and mixed (65 percent) ethnicities did not disclose that they were being sexually abused at the time of the abuse.^[2]

2. Experiences shared with the Truth Project indicated that over time there has been a gradual increase in children disclosing that they have been sexually abused (Figure E.1). Despite this, victims and survivors’ reasons for not disclosing sexual abuse when they were children were broadly similar, no matter when the abuse took place.^[3]

Figure E.1: Proportion of Truth Project participants who disclosed child sexual abuse at the time of the abuse, by the time period in which they were sexually abused