What is our responsibility when we know a child is being molested?

What am I to do if I am molested?

In South Africa, 1 out of every 3 children are molested. 70%  of these children are molested by somebody they know, be it their father, mother, grand-father, grand-mother, teacher or even pastor!

As soon as you become aware of something of this nature, it is your legal obligation to bring it to the relevant authorities attention (be it the school's principal, school psychologist, social worker and/or the police). The law states that if you knew of such an event, and did nothing, that you approved it silently. It is of the utmost importance that the implications are fully understood:

• Firstly the child that is being molested is often scared of the consequences, and then stays quiet until it becomes to unbearable, or until it starts effecting someone else's life as well. They often don't want to be removed from their parental house and would rather suffer at the hand of their molester, than be put into completely strange surroundings - fear of the unknown!

• Secondly, often the spouse or partner, out of fear, doesn't want to become involved, or, is often also abused by the perpetrator!

• Understanding doesn't imply that we approve of their keeping silent (the victim), but does however say that we understand how they think and how their thought processes work. We want you to help us make them (the people who do the molesting) known to the world, and hopefully change their behavior - or bring it to a complete stop!

The burden is firstly on you, as the trusted, and secondly, on the molested, to come out with the truth. The way in which it is handled is different in each and every case. Not all have the frankness to go to the authorities themselves, and often when they do, they tend to deny everything when questioned by the authorities!

Then it is also very important that such a statement is not made behind the back of an affected child, I prefer it if the child himself/herself does it. They then have the choice of how, when, where and with whom they want to speak with. If however the child wants me to do it for them, I then prefer if the child accompanies me!

In the end, if you know of someone, or is being molested yourself, let's try to stop these people that are committing these degrading and terrible acts against other human beings!

Comments

Add New Search

Write comment
Name:
Email:	do not notifynotify
Website:
Title:
	Please input the anti-spam code that you can read in the image.

Powered by !JoomlaComment 3.12

Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved.