We should really thank organisations like 'Childline' for enabling children to confide their problems and councellors who are there to encourage children to talk about what has happened to them in strict confidentiality. When I was young there was no such thing and it was very much the child's word against the adult, if the child was brave enough to speak up about it in the first place. Most children then were either acused of lying or of having an over vivid imagination or blackmailed into keeping quiet about it and often having the blame reversed on to them. The culture now is it is alright for children or abused women to speak up against anything inappropriate and probably has to do with why so much is coming to light now.