Child protection from violence, exploitation and abuse

Violence against children

© UNICEF/ HQ00-0146/ Noorani

An 18-year-old girl is at the Cambodian Centre for the Protection of Children's Rights (CCPCR), where she currently lives, in the south-eastern province of Svay Rieng. Cambodia.

Much violence is hidden. Children may not feel able to report acts of violence for fear of retribution from their abuser. Both child and abuser may see nothing unusual or wrong in the child being subjected to violence. They may not consider an act of violence actually to be violence at all, perhaps viewing it as justifiable and necessary punishment. The child victim may feel ashamed or guilty, believing that the violence was deserved.  This often leads the child to be unwilling to speak about it.

Violence pervades the societies within which children grow up. They see it in the media.  It is part of the economic, cultural and societal norms that make up the child’s environment. It has its roots in issues such as the power relations associated with gender, exclusion, absence of a primary care giver and societal norms that are not protective or respectful of children. Other factors include drugs, availability of firearms, alcohol abuse, unemployment, crime, impunity and cultures of silence. 

Violence can have severe implications for children’s development. In the most severe cases, it can lead to death or injury. However, it can also affect children’s health, their ability to learn or even their willingness to go to school at all. It can lead children to run away from home, exposing them to further risks. Violence also destroys children’s self-confidence and can undermine their ability to be good parents in the future. Children subjected to violence have a heightened risk of depression and suicide in later life.

• The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 40 million children below the age of 15 suffer from abuse and neglect, and require health and social care.
• A survey in Egypt showed 37 per cent of children reporting being beaten or tied up by their parents, and 26 per cent reporting injuries such as fractures, loss of consciousness or permanent disability as a result of this.
• Some 36 per cent of Indian mothers told interviewers in a survey that they had hit their children with an object of some sort within the last six months. Ten per cent said they had kicked their child; 29 per cent had pulled their child’s hair;  28 per cent had hit the child with their knuckles; and three per cent said they had punished their child by putting hot peppers in their mouth.
• A 1995 survey in the United States showed that five per cent of parents asked admitted to disciplining their children through one or more of the following: hitting the child with an object; kicking the child; beating the child; and threatening the child with a knife or gun.
• Recent South African police statistics show 21,000 cases of child rape or assault reported, against children as young as nine months old. Only an estimated 1 in 36 cases of rape is reported.