Using a structured interview, researchers questioned 48 3- to 16-year-old children about their knowledge of religion and religious worship; religion-related symbols and pictures; and movies, music and television shows with religious and horror themes. Although few children evinced direct knowledge of ritual abuse, many revealed general knowledge of satanism and satanic worship. With age, children's religious knowledge increased and became more sophisticated. Increased exposure to nonsatanic horror media was associated with more nonreligious knowledge that could be considered precursory to satanic knowledge, and increased exposure to satanic media was associated with more knowledge related to satanism. The study suggests that children do not generally possess sufficient knowledge of satanic ritual abuse to make up false allegations on their own. Tables, references, appendixes