When Protection Makes Things Worse examines a truth many professionals quietly recognize but rarely say out loud: children are often harmed not only by abuse-but by what happens after they tell. Across schools, child welfare systems, and the justice process, well-intentioned adults act quickly to protect. Reports are filed. Protocols activate. Investigations unfold. From the outside, it looks like safety in motion. For many children, it feels like a second trauma. This book explores how mandatory reporting, institutional urgency, and system-driven responses can unintentionally strip children of control, privacy, and emotional safety. Drawing on trauma-informed analysis and real-world system dynamics, it reveals how protection can quietly become retraumatization-without malice, without neglect, and often without anyone noticing. Rather than blaming individuals, this book challenges the assumption that action alone equals care. It introduces a different framework: containment over escalation, relationship over procedure, and presence over paperwork. Written for educators, parents, social workers, clinicians, advocates, and policymakers, When Protection Makes Things Worse offers a clear, compassionate lens for understanding how systems impact children after disclosure-and what adults can do differently without breaking the law or abandoning responsibility. This is not a call for inaction.It is a call for intentional, child-centered protection. Part of the Protecting Children in the Digital Age series, this volume stands alone while contributing to a larger conversation about power, safety, and adult responsibility in moments that change children's lives forever.