longest-serving Republican House speaker died this week in his suburban Chicago home.

Dennis Hastert's political legacy was tarnished after the 2015 allegations that he sexually abuse teenage boys while working as a teacher and wrestling coach in Yorkville in the years since Hastert's alleged abuse became widely known, have been changes to combat child abuse in Illinois, including eliminating the statute of limitations on criminal assault against children.

But many survivors and advocates say greater awareness of the problem is also key.

Joining us to talk more about the prevalence of child abuse and what resources are available are.

Melissa such senior director of development at Chicago Children's Advocacy Center and Rachel McGinnis, director of to children's advocacy Center.

Thanks to you both for joining Thank So according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 90% of child abuse committed by someone known trusted and known by the child or the family.

One in 4 girls will be sexually abused and one in 6 boys will be sexually abused by the time.

They're 18 years old.

Melissa, what misconceptions people have about child abuse?

I think some of the misconceptions are related to those statistics.

I think it's rare.

They think it's not happening in their community.

>> And it is that happens across all communities.

Also showing not economic status is all demographics.

and you know, it's an invisible harm.

A lot of times you don't see bruises or physical signs of abuse.

and so I think it can kind of fly under the radar and a lot of people just aren't aware that it's happening around them.

Here is actually one of Hastert's alleged victims.

Scott Cross on Chicago tonight.

Back in 2017, he's talking about why he came forward.

>> On average, takes the person that was abused as a minor.

>> Till age of 42 before they come out you go shame, Payne, guilt, embarrassment.

There's so many emotions that drive.

I felt it was the right thing for me to do to come forward to help me heal and to have a voice for other victims that you know what?

It's OK to come forward and you should be able to feel comfortable and tell your story.

>> Rachel, what other factors can contribute to that silence that survivors victims half?

Yeah.

I think there's a lot that goes into that for some of our children.

They don't even know that they've been abused, especially for younger kids or when you started happening when they were very, very young or brought by a loved one, they don't even know it's abuso.

I'm that some of the work that we do.

We do prevention work in the community in the schools, with teachers, with students to help them know this is abuse.

And we've even had kids come forward to our educators.

I didn't know I was being abused.

And now I do because of the work that you've done, what you've taught me.

So I think there's that aspect.

There's the awareness of what is abuse.

And then, of course, we always have the, you know, cultural aspects of the stigma around abuse.

What does it mean if I'm I no longer a good kid, right?

Why did they choose me?

Right?

If we have a male on male abuse, there's worries about sexuality that could come up for some kids.

There's word that their family will support them if it's a loved one.

What happens if it dad, what happens if dad had now has to go to jail?

All right.

And what happens with the family?

Do we lose our housing?

Do we lose our support?

So I think there's a lot that goes into why children don't want to come forward and share their abuse.

Melissa, what are some of the signs that a child might be experiencing that abuse, especially if you know, if they haven't disclosed and or as Rachel said, they don't know what they're disclosing.

>> Yes, I mean, I think some of the things to look out for are changes in behavior, trouble sleeping.

Bed-wetting, regressions things like that.

Anything that just might seem a little bit off.

They might be wary around being around a certain things like that.

Rachel, how should parents and caregivers talk to young people about abuse?

I think we need to have open and honest developmentally appropriate conversations with kids and start very young.

Most parents don't want to start at a young age.

>> But it is really important.

Teach your kids the correct terminology for their body parts.

That is huge.

We see that all the time that were kids might say, you know, this got touch, but they don't know the actual terminology.

And it makes it really hard to know if the abuse is it something else teaching that appropriate terminology is so important talking to kids from a young age and if a child does disclose abuse, the first thing you want to do is tell that child, I believe you and it's not your fault.

So many children, they are psychologically harmed when their caregivers, their loved ones that they disclose, don't believe them and tell them that they're wrong.

Most a little bit more about that.

What should a parent or or trusted adult do if a child does disclose should be not to?

Yes, I mean, think exactly what Rachel is saying, you know, letting them know that you believe them.

You hear them and that you're going to do everything that you can to keep them safe.

Moving forward, you know, than reaching out to the child Abuse hotline, making a report so that we have that child and that family can get linked to the services of CAC and they can get started on the path towards healing in safety.

Right?

And that's mean, if you look at something important to mention, not lot of folks first thing they want to do is call 9-1-1, and the police.

>> Versus start meeting with the child abuse hotline and figure out the next steps.

Absolutely cases involving high-profile people we've heard of course, we just mentioned Dennis Hastert, Larry Nassar, Jeffrey Epstein you know, they put a lot of child assault in the national spotlight.

But, Rachel, how important is it for some of these conversations to be in the public rather than in the private?

Yeah, I think it's always important the more awareness that we can get around child abuse always going to help situations.

People need to know that it's happening everywhere in every community.

As Melissa said earlier, it does not.

>> You know, does not discriminate against those who work mix status raise.

Everybody is impacted by this.

If it's not yourself personally, you know someone who's sexually abused.

And so we need to able to talk about it and we need to be comfortable talking about it.

So the kids know that they can come forward, that this is not a scary topic that they can't talk to us about we've seen television programs like to catch a Predator, which made into a movie now called Prime Time on that kind of turn, this grooming this kind of grooming or abuse into something of a spectacle.

Melissa, is there.

>> A danger that focusing on some of the most shocking cases might make people think that child abuse is something that only happens in extreme or unusual circumstances.

Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, like we said earlier, most of these incidents are with somebody that the family and the child knows and trusts.

>> It's not always to catch a predator type situation where there's this, you know, big plot and a lot of times it's just somebody that, you know, it might even be somebody in the family.

So I think focusing on those types of situations is really where we need to be.

>> Rachel, Illinois eliminated the criminal statute of limitations for survivors of children in 2017 who were children.

How significant is that a change for survivors?

But also what gaps remain when it comes to accountability?

>> Yeah, I think it's always important because we know that delayed disclosure is the norm.

Most children are not going disclose that they have been sexually abuse when it happens.

It happens years later.

So having the ability to come forward whenever they're ready is very important for all survivors of abuse in terms of the know, we work really closely with the Cook County State's Attorney's Office of both of our CAC is too to learn about the different lot to talk about ways that there are gaps in how we can help to advocate for different changes so that and would communicate those changes to our law enforcement and the families that we work with.

Melissa, for survivors to come forward.

You know, years or decades later, what does justice actually look like for them as it necessarily about prosecution or some other form of accountability?

>> A lot of time.

It's not about prosecution or justice through the traditional criminal justice pathways that we might think of.

>> A lot of times it's just giving voice to what happened to and saying it out loud and feeling like they have been heard and believed and supported.

There's a lot of healing in that.

And so I think that is a lot of times vary more, much more important for children and families to feel that support and that they have been heard and believed it also sometimes get someone else someone else who