Yesterday we carried a story under the title: Grade 6 pupil falls pregnant, in which we reported that a 12-year-old Mt Pleasant pupil had dropped out of school after sexual abuse that resulted in her falling pregnant.
NewsDay Editorial
Hardly a day passes without reports about sexual abuse where children, especially girls, fall prey to child molesters. Recently, we have also witnessed a growing trend where young boys are sodomised by some sexual perverts.
Judging from reports, the adult perverts range from young men of 18 to octogenarians who should know better. This means children need protection from paedophiles of all ages across all sections of society.
The continued sexual abuse of children shows that the current punitive measures are not deterrent enough.
Children are abused under different guises and these include the “need” to follow religious and traditional practices. We have many known religious cults in the country that are specialists in child abuse.
Despite the fact that such sects are known, nothing is done about them. They even have the audacity to marry off underage girls in broad daylight.
Children, because of their age and limited knowledge of the world, cannot successfully mobilise and lobby against abuse.
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Although the responsibility to protect these young souls lies squarely on the shoulders of every adult in society, the government should take a leading role.
It is high time we had legislation specifically to deal with child abuse.
This type of legislation should be in the mould of the Domestic Violence Act that women organisations pushed for. It is equally important that we have a specific law that protects children as children.
It is not enough to have laws that protect children from abuse couched in laws that have to do with adults. Legislation targeting child abusers should have serious punitive measures that include life imprisonment.
We need specific legislation that targets paedophiles. This may make those who want to abuse young children think twice.
What is also worrisome is that the majority of child abusers are either relatives or people who are known to the children. This shows premeditation on the part of the abusers.
It is notable that most of the abusers who appeared in the courts of law hardly showed any remorse for their actions. Most have given flimsy excuses for their deeds. They seemed not to care a hoot about the subsequent trauma their victims would suffer for life. Hence it is important that new legislation be crafted to severely punish paedophiles or to lock them away for life.
