Information for Young People

Rosey Project

The Rosey Project (Rape Crisis Centre Offering Support and Education to Young People) is a service that offers sexual violenceawareness raising workshops within schools and youth groups for girls and boys.

We have a range of awareness raising workshops that are age appropariate from S1 to S6. We can carry out these workshops in schools, youth groups and various other community settings. We work with young people, adults, youth workers, teachers, parent groups and any other group who feel they may benefit from our workshops.

For more information about the Rosey Project see thewebsite at or you cancontactPaula Dunnon 0141 552 3201 or email

About Rape and Sexual Assault

What is abuse?

To ABUSE someone is to mistreat them: to take away their rights to happiness, safety and control over their own body. We call a person who does this an abuser. An abuser is someone who is in a position of power over the person he abuses, either because he is older or stronger or has authority.

ABUSE can be emotional, physical or sexual. All types of ABUSE are wrong, and can affect girls and women for a long time afterwards in their relationships with others and in their feelings about themselves.

What is rape?

The law in Scotland says that rape is when a man penetrates the vagina, anus or mouth without consent, or without reasonable belief that there was consent. Rape can happen to a girl or a boy but can only be committed by a boy or a man.

What is sexual abuse?

Sex ought to be an equal, shared and pleasurable activity between two people of similar ages.

SEXUAL ABUSE is totally different; it is when one person (usually a man) does sexual things to another (usually a child or a woman) without their consent or agreement. This is done to overpower, frighten or hurt her. This is usually possible because he has more power – he’s perhaps older, stronger or has more authority and takes advantage of this.

SEXUAL ABUSE can be a one-off incident or it can happen over a long period of time. Abusers can be strangers but they are most often men or boys that you know. It is always the abuser who is to blame for the abuse and not the girl or the woman it happens to.

The following things can be called sexual abuse:

  • Having sexual remarks made about you
  • Being asked to undress or be watched when undressing
  • Being made to watch pornographic films or look at pornographic pictures
  • Having photographs taken of you or being filmed on a mobile phone doing sexual things
  • ‘Sharking’ (Where a group of people, usually men or boys, sneak up on a woman in a public place and expose her breasts or pull down her underwear in order to humiliate her. This is sometimes photographed or recorded on mobile phones.)
  • Being touched on your private parts or breasts
  • Being made to touch another person’s private parts
  • Being raped (forced to have sexual intercourse, vaginally, anally or orally)
  • Being bullied or coerced into having sex or doing sexual things
  • Having objects put into your vagina, anus or mouth

What is incest?

Incest means sexual activity between members of the same family, which is illegal. It usually takes the form of SEXUAL ABUSE of children by male relatives such as fathers, grandfathers, uncles, brothers.

Sexual abuse by step-fathers or other family members that are not blood relatives is not defined as incest but is still wrong and against the law.

What is physical abuse?

Using violence and aggression to hurt and frighten another person. This can include pushing, hitting, slapping, using weapons and also threatening to hurt you. Physical and sexual abuse can happen together or there can be threats of physical abuse to makepeople perform sexual acts.

What is emotional abuse?

Emotional abuse is mistreating another person by denying their needs and treating them in a way which makes them feel worthless and afraid. For example, name calling, putting them down in front of other people, telling them they are ugly/fat/skinny/useless/stupid etc.

Although it doesn’t have to involve physical force, emotional abuse can be just as difficult to cope with as sexual or physical abuse. It is a way for one person to have control over another.

What is sexual bullying?

Sexual bullying is defined by ‘Womankind’ as …

‘Any bullying behaviour, whether physical or non-physical, that is based on a person’s sexuality or gender. It is when sexuality is used as a weapon by boys or by girls. It can be carried out to a person’s face, behind their back or by using technology (like a mobile phone, email or msn). For example:

  • Using words that refer to someone’s sexuality as a put down (like calling something ‘gay’ to mean that it’s not very good)
  • Using sexual words to put someone down (like calling someone a ‘slut’ or a ‘slag’)
  • Making threats or jokes about serious or frightening subjects like rape.
  • Gossiping about someone’s sex life – including the use of graffiti.
  • Touching someone in a way that makes them feel uncomfortable.
  • Touching part of someone’s body that they don’t want to be touched.
  • Forcing someone to act in a sexual way.’

‘Bullying – Don’t Suffer in Silence’ report also defines bullying as:

  • Abusive name calling
  • Looks and comments about appearance, attractiveness, emerging puberty
  • Inappropriate and uninvited touching
  • Sexual innuendos and propositions
  • Pornographic material, graffiti with sexual content
  • In its most extreme form, sexual assault and rape

What is internet grooming/cyberstalking?

The internet is used by most young people both at school and at home. You may use MSN, chat rooms or take part in online gaming. This can be the place where abusers try to get you know young people and groom them for later sexual activity, either in person or online.

There are five stages of grooming online. These are:

1.Forming a friendship.

This is where someone becomes friendly online or in a game and asks for personal information, often through private messages. It is very common for the abuser to be much older but not always. You may be asked for your a/s/l or even your mobile number. It’s very unwise to give out this kind of personal information online. You might be asked for a photograph, or if you have a webcam.

2.Forming a relationship

This may be where the abuser asks personal questions about problems at home, he may become someone you can confide in and might give good advice. This is aimed at building trust and getting as much personal information as possible.

3.Risk Assessment

You might be asked about the location of your computer, whether you have it in your bedroom or another private space, or whether it’s in the living room where anyone could see what you are doing. This may be to establish how much risk there will be in making sexual remarks or sending photographs.

4.Exclusivity

This is about building that ‘exclusive’ relationship; suggesting that they are close or even in love and that they can tell each other anything.

5.Sex Talk

At this point the abuser will start to introduce ‘sex talk’, talking about what he could/wants to do to the young person, asking for or sending explicit photographs or for sex acts to be carried out in front of a webcam. It may be at this time that a personal meeting is arranged.

This grooming can be a long process and the men who do it are often very believable, sometimes not only grooming the young person but the whole family. You may be told that the person you are building this relationship with is another young person, and he or she may be, but it’s better to play safe online.

There are a few tips you can use:

  • You will have been told often by teachers, by your parents, in magazine articles etc that you shouldn’t give out personal information online – such as your address or mobile phone number. This is good advice!
  • Don’t send or post photographs online that you wouldn’t want anyone else to see. When you have sent them, you have no control over where they go next. If you are under 16 years old you could be charged with a criminal offence. It is illegal to take or send photographs of anyone under the age of 16 years old, this is child pornography. If you send a photograph of yourself you could be committing an offence and if you receive a photograph and send it on you could also be committing an offence.
  • Don’t do anything in front of a webcam that you wouldn’t want the whole world to see. Again, you have no control over it when it has been sent.
  • Be careful what information you give out about yourself in a chatroom – you may be speaking to just one person but everyone in that room will be able to see what you have written.