‘Are our children safe from sex abuse?’
By Andrew Loh
Are our children safe?
Should parents be concerned about the safety of their children?
Recent cases of educators being involved in sexual abuse or molest cases prompted the Education Minister, Heng Swee Keat, to issue a letter to school principals in February reminding them of the "privileged position of trust and respect" teachers are placed in and that they have a "special responsibility to uphold them," reported Channel NewsAsia.
According to The Straits Times, he also said that "every case of teacher misconduct will be investigated and the appropriate disciplinary action doled out."
The abuse of school children by educators, perpetrated by "a couple of black sheep", as Heng put it, is but one area of concern.
The other has to do with the sexual abuse of children and minors outside the school.
Many sex abuses cases reported
Just on Saturday — 25 February — the press reported two separate cases of sexual abuse on children between 9 to 12-years old. The second case involved an 18-year old having had sex with a 12-year old and physically abusing her as well, reported Today.
From a cursory search on the Internet of cases in the last three to four years, children in the age groups of between 1-9-years old and between 10-15-years old seem to be the most vulnerable. Examples:
"The 37-year-old [former school teacher] allegedly committed the offences on boys aged between 9 and 11 years." (Channelnewsasia)
"[A father] was jailed yesterday for subjecting his daughter to seven years of sexual abuse — starting from when she was just nine." (Stomp)
"He raped his biological daughter when they were alone at home one day. She was only seven years old." (New Paper)
"A [30-year old] salesman was convicted on Wednesday on one count of sexually abusing his eight-year-old step-daughter and two counts of forcing her to perform oral sex on him in 2009." (Straits Times)
"A week after they met in 2009, a man took a teenage girl to a staircase landing in Bukit Batok Central, where they had sex. The girl, then a month shy of her 16th birthday, gave birth to a boy in March last year, and is now caring for the baby." (Straits Times)
These are but only a few examples of the cases from the last few years, of course. There are many more, involving adults forcing themselves on children sexually.
According to the Association of Women for Action and Research (Aware):
"It is illegal to have sex with a person under the age of 16 with or without the minor's consent. Sex with a person below 16 is called 'Statutory Penetration of a Minor Under 16', S376A, Penal Code.
If the minor is a girl below 14, the offence is called statutory rape."
It further adds:
"A woman under 14 years of age is deemed not to be able to consent to sex. Thus, the sexual penetration of a person under 14 years old is deemed to be rape or unlawful sexual penetration, liable to imprisonment for a term up to 20 years plus fine or caning."
Questions to consider
While the law will and must come down hard on the perpetrators of such abuse on children, perhaps the more important questions which parents, educators and the authorities should consider are:
How do we protect children from such abuse in the first place?
What support is given to children of such abuse after the fact?
With regards to the first question, parents and the schools would play the most important roles as children spend most of their time with them. In the schools, especially, children should be taught to identify situations which such abuse could potentially take place and to be able to move away from them.
The schools themselves, meaning principals and those in higher authority, should keep an eye out for teachers who may have such proclivity to abusing their charges.
Parents should be more involved with their children, to spend time with them and ask them about their day in school. It would also be good for parents to speak of sexual abuse with their children in order for the children to be aware of potential situations in which they could be vulnerable.
As for the second point on support for victims of sexual abuse, it is imperative that the authorities have a comprehensive or holistic support system for these children and their families.
Being sexually abused is a traumatic situation to be in. Abused children would not know how to deal with it. It is thus important for the Ministry for Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS), for example, to step in to help.
Homes for troubled kids
It is thus a welcomed move that the MCYS announced it is setting up more homes for abused or troubled kids. According to the New Paper, there are currently 22 such homes for children. "They house those who are abused, neglected, come from dysfunctional families, are beyond parental control or have broken the law."
Small group homes will be set up in the coming years — two by the end of 2012 and another four by the end of 2015. Each of the new homes, which will cost S$13 million in total, "will have an intensive, dedicated treatment programme, which may include therapy, personalised tutoring and mentoring. They will be able to house 15 residents each and will have a staff-to-child ratio of 1:3. This is an improvement from that at current children's homes, which is 1:25."
It is, however, unclear if these homes will cater to children who are sexually abused as well. I assume that they will.
While such an initiative will go a long way to provide support to the children and their families, it is in going upstream to prevent such abuse in the first place which should be the focus for parents, educators and the authorities.
And in this, all have important roles to play.
The sexual abuse of children is one of the most disgusting crimes in my book and perpetrators should be dealt the full force of the law. With the disconcerting number of cases arising, should Singapore perhaps consider a register for perpetrators, much like what other countries have for pedophiles?
Such a register could be made available to certain parties, for a start — such as institutions and businesses where children are the main focus. Schools or tuition centres, for example, could be given such a listing of convicted abusers.
It is time for the authorities and various concerned parties to rethink how our children can be better protected. When it comes to children, we should not adopt a reactionary position, acting only after the fact. It is paramount that all avenues be sought to prevent our children from being abused. We owe this to our kids.
Andrew helms publichouse.sg as Editor-in-Chief. His writings have been reproduced in other publications, including the Australian Housing Journal in 2010. He was nominated by Yahoo! Singapore as one of Singapore's most influential media persons in 2011.
