Protecting our children

From the report “Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Children, Sale of Children, Child Prostitution, and Child Pornography” of Ms Ofelia Santos, I realized that it is important to  document  local cases. Such work is very important in the prevention of child abuse. The report is also a good guide  to take note of.

The first issue is  about causes. Here, she points out that “girl children are more vulnerable to sexual exploitation”. Related to this is the “undervaluation of   females in terms of ‘property’ or ability to earn in the market.” Other causes: “population growth; the erosion of the family structure resulting in the deprivation of one of the best stabilizing elements in the lives of children; and the erosion of and spiritual values which also adversely affects the judgments of parents, who may view the child as a factor of production or as an investment for economic reasons rather than an entity vested with substantive rights and inherent dignity.”

Which children are usually vulnerable? Her finding show that those who belong to “marginalized families or broken families or have been abused in the family” and “street children because of peer pressure or because it is a means of survival.”

The clients, on the other hand, were “pedophiles, preferential child sex abusers or travelling businessmen, migrant foreign workers, military  personnel, public workers in isolated places.”

The motivations behind sexual abuse in a commercial context were seen by the rapporteur as follows: Girls between the age of 14 and 20 “conform closely to cultural ideas of beauty.” “To obtain a sense of camaraderie as in a sex tourism group or to assert masculinity, males resort to commercial sexual abuse of children.” Some also believe that “sex with a virgin will enhance the virility of men or cause longevity.”

It is  important to emphasize the effects of sexual exploitation on children to put an end to it. Calcetas-Santos asserts: “Any kind of sexual exploitation can be devastating to a child, but commercial sexual exploitation afflicts children with horrors that  would be quite difficult to imagine.” There is a whole range of physical effects including “sexually transmitted diseases and headaches, bodyaches, sores, and a general feeling of malaise.” Mental and psychological effects include “depression and suicidal tendencies; devastated self-esteem; impaired learning ability; inability to trust anybody; multiple phobias; escapism through dissociation, sleep or fantasy.”

Rehabilitation and reintegration is a challenging and costly process. The entire process of responding to the abuse and exploitation demands coherence.

Schools in partnership with local  government units and nongovernment organizations need to research on the local situation in order to  uphold  children’s rights. Schools together with the different sectors of the community, especially the media, have to see to it that children and responsible adults are fully aware of “avenues of recourse” such as  hotlines, persons to approach, offices to go to.

Police personnel also need to be oriented about the problem. Children need to feel safe in the presence of the police.