Child safety advocate and former congressional candidate Patty Wetterling says more emphasis is needed on preventing sexual violence.

She said prevention is key for both victims and perpetrators in a speech this week at Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall, according to a story in the Marshall Independent. Wetterling is now director of Sexual Violence Prevention for the Minnesota Department of Health.

She asked men in the audience to think about the women in their lives and consider how society portrays females.

“We’re objectifying girls at younger and younger ages,” Wetterling said. “We shouldn’t be treating them only as sexual objects. I always think about children when they’re first born, how proud everyone is. Nobody thinks about them being victims. We have to protect our children for many, many reasons.”

She became an outspoken supporter of child safety after her 11-year-old son Jacob was kidnapped at gunpoint in 1989. He has never been found.