Is the longstanding "Satanic Panic" reversing course?

The arrest of four men in Australia is just one of several recent trending topics centered around satanism-linked child abuse. It seems that reality is becoming too big to ignore.

A strange thing happened in the late 1980s and early 1990s. As modern society – and by extension, the youth – became increasingly less reliant on traditional social norms, the status quo gave way to a rebellious uprising. Heavy metal music soared in popularity, kids played Dungeons and Dragons at their school lunch tables, and popular media placed a heavy emphasis on satanic aesthetics.

Although modern Satanism had already been around for much longer, it existed predominantly in the shadows of American culture. But with upside down pentagrams and crudely drawn 666s plastered all over the media landscape, parents began to worry that their kids were being subverted by an evil force. Maybe they were, in some sense of the word. But in a more rational context, most of what society witnessed during that era was nothing more than a harmless pop culture trend.

Ironically, the real harm was caused by the fretful parents who took the hysteria too far. The end result of the Satanic Panic was a deep shadow of doubt cast over all things dark and ritualistic. The sinister forces that have always existed in our world took advantage of this moral panic and its eventual debunking to cover their tracks – and it worked really well. All subsequent mentions of satanism, particularly those pertaining to the ritualistic abuse of children, were dismissed as hysterics. As time went on, the smokescreen only intensified. The rise of QAnon in the late 2010s further discredited legitimate discussion of satanic child abuse, particularly in America.

Today, in 2025, an even stranger thing is happening. The trend seems to be on a reverse course. International news stories about satanic and ritualistic child abuse are spiking, and many who previously viewed such things as hysteria are coming to a disturbing realization. Not only are they beginning to see that satanic-themed child abuse real, they are realizing it always has been.