The damage that child sexual abuse does and the long term neuro-biological effects that we have seen victims undergo should motivate us to think about how to effectively implement primary prevention measures, said Klaus Beier, director, Institute of Sexology and Sexual Medicine at the Charite University, Berlin, delivering the eighth annual Tulir- CPHCSA lecture here, on Monday.
In his lecture on ‘Paedophilia and Sexual Offending against Children: How to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse and the Use of Child Abusive Images?’ Mr. Klaus spoke about the media campaign they had launched in Germany to encourage paedophiles and hebephiles to seek professional help so they would not commit child sexual abuse.
“There should be no contradiction between law enforcement and the promotion of preventive strategies. We can assume that paedophilia can be found in every country and child pornography too has become a topic of international concern because of its accessibility in every part of the world,” he said.
Stating that it was important to obtain and spread knowledge about primary preventive accessibility with regard to child protection, Mr. Klaus pointed out that it was necessary to take the social surroundings and circumstances into account.
Speaking about the steps taken by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, Stuti Kacker, its chairperson, said that they had added an ‘E-box’ facility to their official website where children could click on it and directly report instances of sexual abuse they may be facing, to the commission.
Use of technology
“The commission has been focusing on child sexual abuse and leveraging Information Technology for the prevention of such crimes. Despite our country being so diverse, IT has been a unifying factor and we hope to use it properly,” she said. M.s Stuti further added that the commission was working towards developing a smart phone app as well based on the ‘E-box’ facility where children could contact the commission directly.
“The safety of children online has become another growing concern for us and we are working with the Police Department to work out what can be done for the same,” she added.
S.T. Lakshmi Ramesh, Principal Magistrate with the Juvenile Justice Board said that despite the instances of child sexual abuse being on the rise, not all of them were getting reported. “I hope that the State Government, at the earliest, forms special children’s courts where the ambience is conducive for young persons who have been victims of such crimes. At present, the victims and the offenders are taken to the Mahila Court which is often daunting for them,” she said.
