To ease the pain

(Baonghean) -Child sexual abuse (XHTD) is now becoming an alarming problem of moral degradation, causing outrage in society. In particular, the victims of XHTD are increasingly young and tend to increase. In the first 9 months of 2013 alone, there were 7 cases, the victims were all girls in their teens, even some were only 3 years old. These numbers are only the cases that have been brought to light, not to mention many cases where families are too ashamed to report to the authorities.

A communication session on adolescent reproductive health education at Thai Hoa High School. Photo: Thanh Phuc

At the end of 2012, public opinion in Nghia Dan district was abuzz about the story of V (13 years old) who was sexually abused by a neighbor many times to the point of becoming pregnant before adulthood. Her parents discovered that their child was showing strange signs and investigated, she said that she was sexually abused by a neighbor. After receiving the family's complaint, the authorities intervened. Through investigation, V reported the incident: To help her family, she went to catch crabs, snails and herd cows. When the depraved neighbor found out that she often went alone, he controlled her and raped her, then threatened her not to tell anyone or he would kill her. Because of fear, V kept silent. Therefore, V was abused many times after that. When V's parents found out, she was 7 months pregnant (V herself did not know she was pregnant). The fetus was so big that it could not be aborted, forcing her to become an unwilling mother at the age of 14.

Or like the case of child T (3 years old) in Nam Dan district, who was abused by a neighbor. Because the child's parents subjectively thought it was a neighbor, they did not pay attention and left the child at home with this person. While committing the rape, a passerby discovered and shouted. The child's parents reported it to the authorities, but the punishment was not deterrent.

In many cases, the perpetrators of sexual abuse against children are people very close to them. They can be stepfathers, young men in the same neighborhood, or even people the age of the children's grandfathers. According to statistics, the age of abuse is from 3 to 27 years old (especially from 7 to 16 years old), the criminals are from 17 to 70 years old. Doctor Nguyen Quang Trung - Director of the Provincial Medical Assessment Center said: "Recently, the situation of child sexual abuse in the province has been quite complicated. The main reason leading to the above behavior is due to the lack of attention and care from parents, the area where the incident occurred is remote so children are easily taken advantage of by bad guys.

Children today have early puberty, lack of parental care and attention, poor knowledge of sexual health, and sex education is not emphasized. In addition, the social environment has many impacts on young people, causing children to compete with friends, being exploited and seduced by bad people. In addition, limited awareness of the law is also the reason why many people (especially minors) have sexual behavior towards children.

Child sexual abuse not only causes physical damage and temporary consequences but can also haunt a person throughout their life. Children can suffer from very serious reproductive health disorders, affecting their ability to learn, their ability to integrate into family and society as well as their mental health. In order for children to have the awareness to protect themselves, parents, more than anyone else, must teach their children how to protect themselves; share with their children to recognize necessary psychological changes, learn how to talk to their children about sensitive issues... Agencies, departments and sectors need to pay due attention to building beneficial activities so that children have a healthy living environment. In reality, many families, even though they have discovered that their children have been sexually abused, have to "swallow the bitter pill", not reporting it for fear of scandal affecting the future honor of the child and family. In some cases, the two families agreed on the compensation, while the mother hid the truth out of shame and guilt. That is why the problem of child sexual abuse has not decreased.

Thuy Hien(Provincial Information and Education Center)