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" Dating violence is an important issue to continue talking about (especially in light of the Rihanna-Chris Brown situation), but it&amp;#039;s still going on \u2014 in your school, maybe even among your friends. In fact, 30% of teens say they have experienced dating violence, according to a survey by Liz Claiborne and the Family Violence Prevention Fund. Katie Couric recently did a segment on CBS about the issue, to let parents know what&amp;#039;s going on with their kids, and to let you know how to identify and prevent dating violence. Plus, check out Seventeen&amp;#039;s exclusive interview, below, with Katie about what you can do to help out your gal pals and get the conversation started! 17: What are signs of dating abuse that girls should look out for? Katie Couric: First of all, for your friends, look for somebody who becomes increasingly isolated and kind of steps back from her friendships, who only wants to spend time with her boyfriend, but in a way that seems secretive and unhealthy, somebody who is absolutely obsessed. This is something that is probably hard to determine because it seems most teenagers are pretty tied to their technology already, but someone who seems jumpy and jittery and particularly obsessed with email or text messages, someone who complains about the constancy of emails coming their way. One thing the experts have told me is that gut checks are so essential. So get your friends to talk and sense from them their level of discomfort about the relationship. 17: In the segment on CBS, you say that dating violence isn&amp;#039;t just physical or sexual - what other forms does it come in? KC: Well obviously there&amp;#039;s the emotional component that&amp;#039;s present in the physical and sexual dating violence, but it can be purely emotional or emotionally traumatizing for someone, whether it&amp;#039;s a bullying behavior or a perpetual harassment. And the thing I&amp;#039;ve discovered is, with the advent of technology the capability to really be abusive 24/7 and to do it in a very secretive way, where parents don&amp;#039;t have a clue, has actually increased the incidents of dating violence in this country. 17: What can girls do to help each other? KC: They say that older peers can be really helpful in educating younger girls in what is acceptable and what is not and what is healthy behavior and what isn&amp;#039;t. And I think just talking about it is always the first step, just acknowledging this exists - this is a problem. I think that a lot of teens know that it exists, but I also think there&amp;#039;s still a certain level of denial that goes on, not only in the teenage population, but definitely in the parent population. To get it out in the open and have conversations about it is the first step. Obviously if it becomes really serious, you have to bring it to the attention of the adult, whether it&amp;#039;s a teacher or a trusted grownup in a teenager&amp;#039;s world or it&amp;#039;s a counselor at school. 17: What can teen girls do to raise awareness of this issue? KC: I think, again, talking about the problem is really important. I think talking to parents is really important and talking to peers. This affects kids from all different backgrounds and all races. It&amp;#039;s not limited to low income, inner-city kids or upper middle class suburban kids \u2014 it&amp;#039;s everywhere. There are a myriad of ways to get involved, but I think just being the one who&amp;#039;s willing to have a conversation. And one of the troubling things, that&amp;#039;s in my interview, is that a lot of people blame Rihanna for that incident. They say she started it, and I think that is a &amp;quot;blame the victim&amp;quot; mentality that is still very prevalent. So even if she got aggressive, he could have said &amp;quot;Please get out of my car.&amp;quot; There were a number of different ways he could have dealt with that situation. I think just having an open and honest conversation and treating this as an important issue for young people is one of the most important things you can do. Check out @katiecouric: Teen Dating Violence, Katie&amp;#039;s half-hour CBS News segment. And if you or someone you know is being abused, send them these dating abuse resources. Have you witnessed or experienced dating violence? Have you talked to your friends about it? Start the conversation below, in the comments! "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.seventeen.com/love/a6595/katie-couric-dating-violence/>