Recently, CPU (Child Protection Unit) brought to light a cruel case in Cape Town wherein 6 men raped a nine-month-old baby. The child abuse situation is now reaching catastrophic proportions.
Almost everyday an episode is featured on rape/sexual harassment, prostitution, pornography, and trafficking of children for sexual purposes. It is so disgraceful to see how month old babies are being raped. What do they attain by doing this? They must be DEVILS ready to ensnare their evil hold only to satisfy their lustful desires. What is it they are trying to prove? MANHOOD? The terrible fact is that younger and younger children are doomed to work in brothels because the “customers” assume that children are less likely to be infected with HIV/AIDS. UNICEF (the United Nations Children’s Fund) reports that 97 countries have identified cases of commercial sexual exploitation of children, and puts the number of children recruited or coerced into the sex trade every year at 1.2 million – and rising.
Child Sexual Abuse is any form of sexual activity with a child by an adult, or by another child where there is no consent or by another child who has power over the child. The most form of abuse is that of penetration, where the perpetrators are most often someone the child knows and trusts, mostly his relatives including father, mother, brother, sister, grandfather, grandmother, cousins, family friends or neighbors.
Who are we to blame for this?
A myth in South Africa that having sex with a virgin will cure AIDS, the younger the virgin, the more potent the cure, they believe. This has led to an epidemic of rapes by infected males, with the correspondent infection of innocent kids. Many have died in these cruel rapes.
Media plays a prominent role. The obscene sites seem to be doing a great job in alluring the maximum number of surfers, most of which are teenagers; the vulgar movies seem to be another easy access.
Children enter the sex trade through coercion or recruitment by individuals, businesspersons, and family members. Some children enter the business because they have no other choice – they have no skills, no education, and no hope for survival. Most of the boys and girls come from poor families who sell them into labor and/or prostitution.
The rape cases are only greater than ever. It is so unnerving to read those various incidents, how children are being exploited only to satisfy the iniquitous needs.
Sex tourism, is becoming another global issue. Billions of dollars are spent each year procuring children for sexual exploitation and for the production and sale of child pornography. There are so many cases where the young girls tricked with tempting offers of work in a good firm then sold at brothels, where they are forced to work day and night unpaid, often they are fed met amphetamine pills to keep them awake. The reluctant are coerced by rape and all kinds of physical torture. Escape is impossible, after all what they get is food, make up to lure more customers, and a few notes thrown.
Sex tourism spans the whole of globe from Central America to the Pacific Islands, from South ?East Asia to Eastern Europe. Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia are among the latest destinations to be touted.
It is high time the government takes initiatives, in penalizing the culprits with such severe punishments that they dare not commit such crimes.
Does man ever realize a few moments of pleasure for him can cost an agony for life; the abuse has caused the victims mental trauma It leaves behind feelings of confusion, helplessness, pain, betrayal, sadness, grief, shame, and overwhelming pain.
It is time we eradicate this scourge against the dignity of children. Children are angels of God, let us treat them one.
Author: Juliet Gomes- UAE
