Please understand - I will not defend Mr. Spacey and his dirty plays (as we know now) - but too the victim is guilty if the victim is silent. So the perpetrator is feeling safe himself and is looking for other victims. All the later victims could have been saved if these persons opened their mouth years and years ago!
The thing is, survivors of child sexual abuse are affected by so much guilt, shame, self-blame and confusion, they are so traumatized and afraid by what happened to them that it likely will take a long time to even admit to themselves what happened and how wrong it was, let alone speak out. The normal, natural minimum time frame is usually around 30 years old for things that happened when you were a child. Even saying the words out loud that someone--perhaps your own parent, a teacher, a trusted family friend, violated, betrayed, and abused you (perhaps in disgusting, highly humiliating ways) can be too difficult to manage until you're at the end of a long therapeutic process that isn't likely to occur when you're young, or 18, or 20.
Also, predators abuse their position of power to take advantage of their victims. Parents, teachers, preists, let alone wealthy, powerful celebrities, hold a privileged position in our society, certainly above what is generally afforded to children. They will say the child was just a 'bad, rebellious deliquent' teen trying to lash out at these respected figuires, or say that they were just a poor washed up ex-child star trying to make a quick buck. If the trauma of your sexual abuse, quite naturally turned you towards drugs to cope or otherwise made your life less then successful, that too will be used to utterly discredit you.
And when you have PTSD, even fears and threats from the distant past stay with you as if they are currently still happening--even if your abuser is now elderly and in a wheelchair thousands of miles away, you still feel the same as you did at five years old, when they were this all-powerful giant hovering over you and completely defining your life by their abuse. So it's really not easy to come forward and 'just tell.' Speaking out definitely means you'll be attacked, scritinized, and perhaps nothing at all will happen as a result; it can be very retraumatizing and set you back if you aren't really ready to do it.
Even if a survivor hasn't been able to report what happened to them yet, we are not responsible for any/all people that were victimized while too traumatized to tell anyone; it's still the abuser that is responsible for their behavior, as well as all of the other people in their lives who enabled their abusive acts, and there are nearly always enablers (fellow adults, non-victims who see signs but do nothing.) You can't make victims shoulder all that blame and responsibility, when we already feel bad enough.
According to the buzzfeed article, Anthony Rapp told his story many times in private, including to a journalist (who refused to print Kevin Spacey's name), in the 30 years between when the attack happened and last week. We should remember, however, that Kevin Spacey was reported for sexually harassing an employee on set of HOC during the filming of season 1, and it was supposedly 'dealt with' but in a way that allowed him to continue sexually harassing young men on set for years afterwards. So there, again, it wasn't just about victims not speaking up; they also weren't listened to, and people in charge were enabling Kevin Spacey to continue to act out. And the victims knew that he had been reported before and nothing happened.
Anthony Rapp was a child in the entertainment industry, off working basically alone in a big city without protection, which was not unusual for that time period (the same era when Corey Feldman/Haim were being abused.) I also read Anthony Rapp's memoir years ago, which gave more details about his early life and coming out experience, which was interesting.
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edited by mark_63 to remove numbers
stances you're suddenly a "child" till 30. 
