People who threaten you "not to tell" know what they are doing is wrong and don’t want to be found out.
They will say they don’t mean to hurt you and it won’t happen again. They might tell you that you deserved to be hurt and that you must behave. They might tell you that you are “special” and this is why they are touching you, or have you touching them and it is a “Secret ”. They will probably tell you no one will believe you. Sometimes the person abusing you will tell you bad things will happen if you tell, and they might threaten to hurt you or others in your family. They might even tell you that it’s your fault but that’s the biggest lie of all. It isn’t your fault.
Abusers will say anything and tell lots of lies to cover up the bad things they do and to stop you telling.
If you tell they can be caught out in all of these lies and you will get help to stop the abuse happening again.
Being told not to tell and being threatened is very frightening. The person hurting you knows that and hopes that you will always be too scared to tell and they can then go on abusing you. Social Workers and Police know how hard it is to tell, and know that you might have been told not to. They will take any threats to hurt you very seriously and when you do tell, they will do everything they can to keep you and anyone else who has been threatened safe.