THE MESSAGE

Survivors of Institutional Child Abuse have been fighting to expose the “Troubled Teen” Industry (TTI) issue and stop the systems and businesses guilty of abuse for generations. For so many years, these voices went largely unheard. Though abuse and deaths in the “Troubled Teen” Industry have been proven and documented from its beginnings, corruption, shame, and stigma prevented the public from understanding the scope of harm happening to our most vulnerable youth.

Institutional Child Abuse effects children from all backgrounds: foster children, rich children, poor children, children of all colors, religions, and cultures. The abuse these children may experience is varied and often extreme, including seclusion, restraint, physical and sexual assault, forced labor, neglect and psychological abuse. Now that the truth about what has been happening in the residential “treatment” industry has broken through into a wide public conversation, a wave of action has mounted to keep kids safe.

THE MOVEMENT

The #breakingcodesilence hashtag began in 2014 as a collaboration among institutional abuse survivor led advocacy networks, to encourage those who have experienced such abuse to stand up and speak out about the abuses they experienced in “Troubled Teen” Industry programs.

Advocacy efforts continued to develop, until a small team came together and took on the task of re-launching the hashtag in 2019, by putting out info content and videos to further the call and educate the public. These efforts, combined with many brave survivors coming forward and celebrity amplification from survivors like Paris Hilton, Paris Jackson, Danielle Brigoli, and others, helped to finally get the message into the mainstream. Since then, the #breakingcodesilence movement has taken on a life of its own, with thousands of people speaking forward, over 500 million views of the hashtag online, and many changemakers hard at work to stop Institutional Child Abuse.

THE RESULT

Parents are now being educated to protect their children, broken systems like foster care are being examined to stop pipelines into institutional living for kids, abusive programs are shutting down, and laws are changing. There have been many series and documentaries released as a result of this subject breaking through, such as THE PROGRAM, TEEN TORTURE INC, and THE KIDS ARE NOT ALRIGHT. But there is still a very long road ahead and an uphill battle to finally end these abuses. Community-based options and safe help for families in crisis have been badly underfunded and underdeveloped as a result of this industry, and must be built up to take the place of overused institutional businesses.

#breakingcodesilence is a call to action that belongs to every survivor, ally, and loved one’s who have been impacted by the abuse or loss of their children to the TTI. It is a call to speak up, keep talking, and take every step necessary to protect our kids and end institutional abuse. No one entity, organization, or person represents this call. It has grown into so many different efforts to effect change, create accountability for abusers and abusive institutions, and support safe help for today’s youth. And with how deeply rooted the “Troubled Teen” Industry is, we need every one of them!