Erin Merryn was just six-years-old when she was molested and later raped by a friend’s uncle. She was 11 when her teenage cousin began sexually abusing her. Both crimes (which were ongoing) first occurred during sleepovers at other people’s homes. After years of silently enduring the abuse and shame, Merryn finally spoke up—in a major way. The Illinois native has written three books about her experience and in 2010, she created Erin’s Law, which encourages schools to teach sexual abuse prevention (20 states have passed it; 21 are voting this year). Now 30, and a new mom to a six-month-old daughter named Abigail, Merryn opens up to Yahoo Parenting about how her dark past is shaping the way she parents.

SAN JOSE, California — A Sunnyvale man who absconded following his indictment on federal child pornography charges is the latest fugitive to be profiled on the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) smartphone app, seeking public tips on at-large and unknown child predator suspects.

One of the prime areas of focus on this website is providing environmental education for our children. In doing so, we would be remiss if we did not provide alarms to both children and parents concerning internet safety. KidsHealth, the most-visited site on the Web for information about health, behavior, and development from before birth through the teen years, recently posted a short article that addresses the disturbing and sometimes tragic effects associated with cyberbullying.

OKLAHOMA CITY — An Oklahoma City father is accused of a disturbing case of child abuse. This week, prosecutors arrested the suspect for the crime which included broken bones, repeated chokings, and even humiliation in front of others. The alleged abuse happened more than once. Court records show the suspect abused his kids repeatedly over the last 5 years. It all happened inside a home in Del City, as well as at another home in Midwest City, and at a third home in Enid.

A frightening attempted kidnapping was caught on tape in Washington state and the suspect remains at-large. The incredible video from a a grocery store in Sprague shows a man running down the street with a toddler in his arms. The child’s older sister and brother are then seen following right behind, trying to rescue 22-month-old Owen. Witnesses said they could hear the young girl screaming for the suspect to stop. Two teenage boys heard the girl and joined the pursuit. The suspect then abandoned the toddler in an empty lot before fleeing.

Washington – Police in Lake Stevens, Washington, have released shocking video detectives took of the horrible conditions three small children, ages 7, 3, and 11 months, were living in. Mark Dorson, 32, the father of the 11-month-old, and Amanda Foley, 32, the mother of all three children, have been charged with three counts of criminal mistreatment and three counts of abandonment of a dependent person.

CHICAGO, Illinois – A 9-month-old girl has died after reportedly having her throat cut with a power saw in a Chicago home, authorities said. A 52-year-old woman related to the baby is in police custody at a hospital. Authorities said the woman cut the girl’s throat with a circular saw, apparently because she wouldn’t stop crying, the Chicago Tribune reported. The woman then tried to kill herself and was found by another relative, the newspaper reported.

A nanny in Argentina is facing child abuse charges after she was secretly filmed hitting a baby and then stealing his food. The footage shows 25-year-old Eve Mantaras slapping and backhanding the cowering two-year-old, who is sat in his high chair. She then takes a plate of food that is meant for him and sits down to eat it in front of the hungry boy. The toddler’s mother Cristina Ceril had installed the secret camera in the family home in the city of Parana in the north east of Argentina and linked it to her smartphone. It came after she discovered a series of bruises on the youngster.

BRITAIN – Hundreds of dangerous sex offenders who are supposed to be closely monitored by police have been missing for up to 14 years, figures revealed yesterday. Police across Britain have lost track of 396 registered sex offenders, including rapists and pedophiles. The sex attackers are meant to be kept under close surveillance after being released from jail because many pose a ‘risk of serious harm to the public’.

ROXBORO, North Carolina — The mother of a 2-year-old Roxboro boy who was accused of extreme child abuse after her son’s death last summer, is now facing murder charges. WTVD reported that officials in Person County released an autopsy report Friday that stated the toddler – Donte Joseph Diven – had a significant amount of pain medication in his system when he died. Investigators said the case began July 30, 2014 when Person County deputies went to a call about a child in cardiac arrest.

BRENTWOOD, N.H. —A Newmarket man accused of beating his 3-month-old son and breaking several bones is being held on $100,000 bail. Jose Orta-Santana was charged with felony first- and second-degree assault. Investigators said the boy was taken to Exeter Hospital on Saturday after suffering a seizure. He was then airlifted to Boston, where doctors found evidence of two skull fractures and 17 broken bones, from his ribs to his toes, police said.

A ‘manipulative and wicked’ lesbian and the Muslim lover she brainwashed into torturing her eight-year-old daughter to death were jailed for a total of 31 years yesterday. Polly Chowdhury, 35, was ‘bewitched’ by ‘evil’ neighbour Kiki Muddar, 43, whose only goal was to secure a place in her bed and make eight-year-old Ayesha Ali’s ‘life a living hell’. Jailing her for 18 years for manslaughter at the Old Bailey Judge Christopher Moss told Muddar: ‘You bear the lion’s share of the responsibility for what happened to Ayesha’. Mr Justice Moss said Chowdhury, who was sentenced to 13 years, had a ‘fundamental position of trust’ for which she had ‘disgracefully failed’. Former law firm secretary Chowdhury fell into the thrall of a cast of 15 characters created by Muddar, including a Muslim spirit called Skyman and a paranormal lover called ‘Jimmy’.

Guinea-Bissau said on Sunday it had dismantled a criminal operation trafficking 54 children to Senegal, where it is believed they would have been forced by Islamic schools to beg on the streets. Police and migration agents rescued the group of children, aged five to 15, on Friday near a border crossing at Cambadju, a village 200 kilometres (125 miles) northeast of the capital Bissau. “Trafficking often happens with the complicity of the parents. In this case it’s parents trying to persuade us to let the children, who were going to a Koran-reading ceremony, cross over,” a local immigration police officer told AFP.

EGYPT- A Cairo schoolboy died on Sunday after being severely beaten by his teacher who has now been suspended, Egypt’s education ministry said as an inquiry was launched. Corporal punishment is common in Egyptian schools, where official negligence has been blamed for the deaths in late 2014 of two children in accidents because of badly maintained equipment. The 12-year-old pupil died on Sunday “after being beaten by a teacher the previous day”, a ministry statement said.