I would dare say nothing of worth being done stop child abuse anywhere in world would compounds the effect of being exposed.
To stop child abuse, the most effective tactics are education and empowerment. Educating kids about the realistic dangers is uncomfortable and decidedly not something people are comfortable with. And empowerment - telling them that their body is their own property and no one, not even their parents, has the right to make them do anything they don't want to - goes against the narrative people want to believe about children being incapable of making those decisions (as if they're difficult).
To stop abuse, you have to realize what abuse is happening. And its abuse by parents first and foremost. A close second is close family members and family friends. Strangers simply aren't the problem. They're a statistical anomaly that is certainly a problem, but one that education does away with quickly and easily. That leaves kids who are afraid of seeing their family destroyed and potentially being tossed into the foster care system. Kids need to know that they will be taken care of, and to be made confident and competent enough to stand up and call out abuse when it happens. It's depressing, slow, intensive work. And law enforcement and politicians are instead too easily convinced to abandon it entirely and just go for the quick busts of extremely dubious benefit to kids.
That is, if they can get past the PC "parents first and foremost" BS. First and foremost is stepparents and mom's boyfriends. Actual parents are a distant second, and even then is often a case of "divorced dad lost all custody rights so resorted to kidnapping in order to see children". Concentrating on the wrong thing is just as bad for advocates as it is for police.
You mention children fearing the foster system. I don't think awful foster stories are being traded at kindergarten recess, but it's true that foster care should only be contemplated in the most extreme circumstances. If child advocates are advocating for just turning up the knob on enforcement, and destroying families for such flimsy causes as corporal punishment or parental marijuana enjoyment, they're abandoning that requirement of extremity. In that case, I wonder for whom they're actually advocating, because it sure as hell ain't the children.
Not only does it go against the "comfortable narrative", it goes against the law. Children are systematically disempowered (often for their own good) until they reach arbitrary magical ages. Minimum driving age, Minimum drinking age, Age of consent, Compulsory school attendance, etc, etc. The idea that children have little agency and few rights is enshrined in law, so it's no wonder they feel powerless when they're abused.
As a case on point, I am extremely disturbed by the way media and governments handle issues like domestic violence. 1800 respect (a government department in Australia) tried to shift the blame onto young boys in a series of heavily promoted TV commercials without any opposition from the community. When a female is caught abusing a family member (child/husband), the media's excuses flow readily "she lost her job", "she was under stress at work". The imagery on TV rarely reflect abused children, despite this being exactly what's happening across the spectrum of society. The Australian Bureau of Statistics says that about 25-33% of domestic violence victims are male (I haven't seen figures for children, but it is likely to be heavily under reported). That's a huge percentage of people who receive little or no representation by all media outlets and the government, let alone charity groups (ie. indigenous people are rarely represented, males are never represented, children are rarely represented - see the imagery as it speaks volumes).
Imagine being a young boy whose mother either mentally or physically abuses you. You turn on the TV and you only see fully grown white women who are (supposedly) the only victims. Politicians (eg. A prominent Queensland politician who should have been dismissed and charged long ago) are legislating for gendered criminal laws because fully grown white women are (supposedly) the only victims and never (supposedly) perpetrators. The people on the TV say how bad males are. The government (1800 respect) saturates TV with domestic violence ads saying "it's a boy thing". You open the newspaper and read the same message almost every week.
Even charity groups chime in. Most charity groups (about 95% of the ones I surveyed, using a public list of every charity that deals with domestic violence) won't even show images of male victims or house male victims. Some charities (like mission Australia) even go as far as to say that "men deny domestic violence happens". Which men? Where? This is almost certainly a ruse to justify almost all of their focus being on fully grown white women (even when Mission Australia say that indigenous women are 24 times more likely to be abused, they still mostly picture _white_ women as victims).
If you really want to talk about abuse and attitudes toward abuse, the problem starts at the top. Governments are prejudiced. The media is morally bankrupt. When somebody knows the government will turn a blind eye and the media will hand out a blank cheque and the courts will say "oh poor woman, she's oppressed/distressed/lost her job", you've got a complete system that's ripe to openly support child abuse.
I find some observations quite fascinating. For example, Steve Altman (Mr Y Combinator) expressed outrage because Muslims can't get on a plane. However, I am yet to see him voice outrage about domestic violence and the appalling attitudes in most media that are open for anyone to see.
The problem doesn't start with parents (although parents contribute to the problem). It starts with apathy.
I'm not under the illusion that this problem of violence and abuse is limited to one gender as that's patently not true. We need society to accept that truth and stop making excuses.