‘300 million kids worldwide experience violence at home, communities’
Violence against children is pervasive in homes, schools and communities all over the world, according to a report by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
The report, titled “A Familiar Face: Violence in the Lives of Children and Adolescents,” showed about 300 million, or three-quarters of the world’s two- to four-year-old children, experience either psychological aggression or physical punishment, or both, by their caregivers at home.
UNICEF chief of child protection Cornelius Williams warned that “the harm inflicted on children around the world does tremendous damage.”
“Babies slapped in the face; girls and boys forced into sexual acts; adolescents murdered in their communities – violence against children knows no boundaries,” he added.
The report uses the latest data to show that children experience violence across all stages of childhood and in all settings.
According to the report, half the population of school-age children – 732 million – live in countries where corporal punishment in school is not fully prohibited. Three-quarters of documented school shootings that have taken place over the past 25 years in non-conflict countries occurred in the United States.
About 60 percent of one-year-olds in 30 countries with available data are regularly subjected to violent discipline. Nearly a quarter of one-yearolds are physically shaken as punishment and nearly one in 10 are hit or slapped on the face, head or ears.
Worldwide, 176 million, or one in four, children under age five are living with a mother who is a victim of intimate partner violence.
The report also found that around 15 million adolescent girls aged 15 to 19 worldwide have experienced forced sexual intercourse or other forced sexual acts in their lifetime. Only one percent of adolescent girls who had experienced sexual violence said they reached out for professional help.
In the 28 countries with data, 90 percent of adolescent girls who had experienced forced sex, on average, said the perpetrator of the first incident was known to them.
Data also revealed that friends, classmates and partners were among the most frequently cited perpetrators of sexual violence against adolescent boys.
To end violence against children, UNICEF called on governments to take urgent action and support such measures as adopting well-coordinated national action plans; changing adult behaviors; limiting access to firearms and other weapons; educating children, parents, teachers and community members to recognize violence in all its many forms and report it safely; and collecting better disaggregated data to track progress through robust monitoring and evaluation.