Does it count as child-on-child sexual abuse (COCSA) if the sexual abuse was by someone familiar to me who was around a year older than me?

Thank you for this question! To learn more about the intricacies surrounding age gaps and childhood sexual abuse, follow this link to a previous response we provided for another survivor processing a similar situation: https://stories.ourwave.org/en/answer/child-on-child-sexual-abuse-cocsa-can-a-victim-be-older-than-their-perpetrator-80

No matter how you choose to identify. You do not deserve the abuse you experienced. You are not alone.

I'm struggling to understand experiences from my childhood. When I was seven, a friend of the same age initiated inappropriate physical contact during what she called a 'game'. This involved restraint and unwanted touching. As we got older (around 10-11), the actions escalated to include oral contact. Although I didn't enjoy these interactions, I often froze and couldn't express my discomfort. I continued the friendship and visiting her house. Years later, I still have vivid, uncomfortable memories of these events. I'm unsure if this qualifies as child-on-child sexual abuse (COCSA), given our young ages and my uncertainty about whether she understood the implications of her actions. I never explicitly told her I didn't want this to happen. How should I interpret these childhood experiences?

Understanding Trauma & Violence

Understanding Trauma & Violence