Putin Doesn't Care about Sex Trafficking

Russia could have done something to prevent sexual exploitation of foreign women during the World Cup. It chose not to.

The 2018 FIFA World Cup has brought an estimated 1 million football fans from around the world to 11 host cities in Russia. But beneath the buzzing, celebratory atmosphere lies a black market of human misery. Anti-slavery nongovernmental organizations in Russia claim that human trafficking has increased since the start of the temporary visa-free regime for ticket holders, which began on June 4 in advance of the World Cup.

Major sporting events including the World Cup, the Olympics, and the Super Bowl always spark warnings over an influx of trafficked workers, many of whom are the victims of forced prostitution. But experts dispute whether such events intensify the problem of human trafficking. Concrete figures are notoriously elusive. There were reports that sexual exploitation had risen by 30 percent in connection with the World Cup in Germany in 2006, and 40 percent at the World Cup in South Africa in 2010. Florence Kim of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said, “It can be extremely difficult to identify human trafficking because of its invisible nature, and even more so because victims are afraid to denounce their traffickers. They're often psychologically abused into staying silent.”

Whether or not the numbers have increased dramatically during the 2018 World Cup, Russia is no stranger to human sex trafficking. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, economic instability, looser travel restrictions, and the absence of a functional legal system facilitated a rise in human trafficking. In the Soviet era, there were no laws against the practice, and public discussion about sexuality and prostitution was taboo until the late 1980s.

As trafficking soared in Russia in the 1990s, foreign and domestic NGOs and some Western governments put pressure on the Duma — the Russian parliament — to pass anti-trafficking legislation. In 2003, President Vladimir Putin introduced laws making human trafficking a crime. Since then, Russia has not introduced any further anti-trafficking laws In 2003, President Vladimir Putin introduced laws making human trafficking a crime. Since then, Russia has not introduced any further anti-trafficking laws, whereas all 14 other former Soviet Republics have passed a total of more than 100 human trafficking laws. Activists say the absence of legislation makes it almost impossible to incriminate a trafficker.

According to the Global Slavery Index, there were more than a million victims of human trafficking in Russia in 2016. Yet, in 2013, just 28 people were convicted of sex trafficking and forced labor.

Thousands of people have been trafficked to Russia since June, according to the Nigerian anti-trafficking activist Oluremi Banwo Kehinde, who leads Help Services for Nigerians in Russia ,  an organization that supports African victims of human trafficking based in Moscow. Kehinde moved to Moscow in 1989 as a student and has been there ever since. After learning about the increasing problem of sex trafficking from African countries to Russia, he decided to fight the practice . To date, he says, he has helped over 400 African women escape sexual slavery in Russia.

The vast majority of trafficked women come from Nigeria, where so-called recruitment agencies lure people in with promises of a good job in Russia. Women are also trafficked from other African countries such as Ghana, Zimbabwe, and Mali, and ex-Soviet countries such as Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Moldova. The Moscow-based anti-slavery NGO Alternative has accompanied police on raids of hidden brothels and discovered hundreds of women who are potential victims of trafficking. Julia Siluyanova, a coordinator for Alternative, explained that traffickers mostly force non-Russian-speaking women into prostitution because they are easier to silence. “Language is the key to isolating a woman,” she said.

Families in Nigeria sometimes also play a significant role in facilitating trafficking. In exchange for helping agencies recruit their daughters, the relatives get a cut of the girls and women's earnings. In June, Ella, a Nigerian woman who worked in a Moscow brothel, was rescued by Alternative. She called her father to tell him what happened and that she was trying to prosecute the madam. Her father threatened to throw her mother out of their home in Nigeria if Ella did not continue working.

Sex trafficking from Nigeria is a growing problem throughout Europe. Sex trafficking from Nigeria is a growing problem throughout Europe. According to a 2017 IOM report, 80 percent of female migrants arriving in Italy from Nigeria — whose numbers have jumped from 1,454 in 2014 to 11,009 in 2016 — are potential victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation. (The remaining 20 percent are economic migrants who come to Italy willingly.) The IOM's Kim said many women are forced into prostitution across Europe after being promised careers as hairdressers.

On arrival, a madam typically confiscates the women's documents, advertises them on Russian sex websites, and imprisons them in apartments. “The women are forced to hand over all their money to their madams, and in order to go free they're told they have to pay a debt of between $40,000 to $50,000. They're psychologically and physically abused, and the only time they get out is when the madam receives an order and calls a taxi to bring the girl to the client,” Siluyanova explained. The madams — many of whom were trafficked to Russia themselves — fear deportation, and angering the Nigerian diaspora. “During raids, there were cases when the madams jumped out of third-floor windows to escape the police,” Siluyanova recalled.

Anti-trafficking NGOs saw this coming. After observing the rise in human trafficking during last year's Confederations Cup held in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kazan, and Sochi, activists put together a robust action plan for the World Cup. “This time, we were much more prepared,” Siluyanova said. Her organization carried out interviews with groups of men and women from Africa at Russian airports to find out if they could be the victims of trafficking and carried out raids in what they suspected were hidden brothels.

Alternative scans sex websites looking for advertisements for African women and once had a male staff member pose as a client to find out an address. Activists might spend days observing the location and the people going to and from the apartment. This work is essential to developing their database of suspects involved in the business.

Before the recent World Cup tournaments in Brazil, South Africa, and Germany, there were significant outreach campaigns to prevent human trafficking. Despite repeated warnings from NGOs, Russian authorities declined to support the anti-trafficking measures. Alternative's requests to put up billboards displaying their free hotline number next to airports were rejected. “We don't know who you are, and it's not our business,” was the government's response, according to Siluyanova.

Seeing one phone number can be the key to freedom. In April, a woman in Nigeria called Alternative's hotline for help. She said her sister, Amina, had been sold into prostitution in Moscow by a Nigerian woman named Rose. Three days later, Alternative rescued Amina and six other Nigerian women from a brothel on the outskirts of Moscow. According to Siluyanova, the three Nigerian men who owned the brothel had lied to the landlord, claiming they were living there by themselves while they hid the women.

In February, Amina had been lured to Russia through a job agency in Nigeria. When she arrived at the airport in Moscow, she was met by Rose, who turned out to be her madam. Rose confiscated her documents and told her she owed a $50,000 debt. “Even when the women are rescued, they are afraid of reporting the madams' crimes. Some are brainwashed into believing in a voodoo curse, that the madam is very powerful, and that their families will be in danger if they talk,” Siluyanova said.

Many Russians blame the victims for falling into prostitution, which is why fighting human trafficking remains a low priority in government. Many Russians blame the victims for falling into prostitution, which is why fighting human trafficking remains a low priority in government.  According to a question in a 2007 survey, only one-third of the participants agreed human trafficking in Russia was a substantial problem. In response to another question from the same survey, around 41 percent of the respondents blamed the victims for their situation, while another 41 percent believed women were duped by criminal gangs or sold into slavery by parents and friends.

Trafficking victims are treated as criminals under the current law, said Kehinde, the Nigerian activist. “Authorities don't see them as victims but as illegal immigrants and refuse to provide even basic medical care when they're rescued. Victims are immediately deported back to their country, where they're almost guaranteed to be in danger and face rejection by their community.”

Alternative has made progress with the support of the criminal investigations department in Moscow. The department collects information about diasporas and criminal groups, and it carries out extensive investigations. But it is merely a small section of the Russian law enforcement apparatus, mostly operating in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

The majority of police officers are still unaware or simply ignorant about the extent and gravity of human trafficking. Siluyanova recently reported an incident of sex trafficking to a chief investigator, who scoffed: “Voodoo-shmoodoo. Report it and you could be put prison for lying.”

Despite the tireless work of NGOs to combat human trafficking, political clashes between the Russian and U.S. governments have made their work more difficult. Despite the tireless work of NGOs to combat human trafficking, political clashes between the Russian and U.S. governments have made their work more difficult. In recent years, the issue has become politicized due to Western pressure to adopt anti-trafficking policies. In 2012, Russia expelled the United States Agency for International Development, the main source for U.S. government funded anti-trafficking activities in Russia, claiming the aid agency undermined Russia's sovereignty.

The next year, Russia was downgraded to Tier 3 — the lowest ranking — in the U.S. State Department's Trafficking in Persons Report for failing to comply with minimum standards. The Russian government derided the methodology, calling the report results “preformulated conclusions based on fragmentary evidence obtained from dubious sources.” In 2016, the Russian government stopped providing prosecution or victim rehabilitation data for the report.

The case of Amina, who spent just three months in sexual slavery before being rescued, was exceptional. According to Siluyanova, people spend an average of two to three years in such conditions before they manage to find help. Most of the time their families do not know or care — or are complicit themselves.

Until the Russian authorities step up their commitment to stop human trafficking, women will continue to be vulnerable. The very least the Russian government could do would be to advertise hotline numbers that could make the difference between continued captivity and escaping sexual slavery. The World Cup would have been a good place to start.

Showing of ‘8 Days' film set to bring sex trafficking awareness to our community

MADISON, Ala. — The topic of human trafficking is unsettling but important.

Human trafficking doesn't only happen in big cities and international countries– it happens right here in north Alabama, too.

Human trafficking is the second-largest and fastest-growing criminal enterprise in the world. It is a problem anywhere there are people.

The North Alabama Human Trafficking Task Force is a volunteer organization that brings awareness to human trafficking to help people keep themselves safe, as well as recognize the signs that others may be held against their will.

The task force is showing the film “8 Days” during an awareness event on Tuesday, July 24, at 7 p.m. at Good Shepherd United Methodist Church in Madison.  The film was made in close cooperation with the Department of Homeland Security, and depicts a 16-year-old girl's abduction into and escape from sex trafficking.

Awareness events like this are a big part of the effort to bring sex trafficking awareness to our community, because it sadly happens here, too.

The film is not explicit, but it is unsettling, and is recommended for middle-school aged children and up and it is free to attend .

There will be a question and answer session held after the film.

FOSTA sex trafficking law becomes center of debate about tech responsibility

The bill, lauded by advocates for survivors of sex trafficking, has drawn ire from the tech community.

by Anna R. Schecter and Dennis Romero -- NBC News

A law meant to stop sex trafficking — lauded by Ivanka Trump, signed into law by her father in April, and championed by members of Congress who have been working for years to crack down on bad actors like Backpage.com — is now being challenged by tech company advocates and internet rights groups who say it violates the First Amendment.

The tech industry-funded nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) will urge a federal judge Thursday to stall enforcement of the law, known as FOSTA-SESTA, which holds websites accountable if they knowingly facilitate criminal activity like human trafficking that happens on their platforms. (FOSTA is short for the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act, and SESTA is the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act.)

While FOSTA-SESTA was hailed as a victory by many advocates for survivors of sex trafficking, some in the tech community have pushed back on the law over concerns that the government is moving to require tech companies to censor the internet.

Prior to passage of FOSTA-SESTA, tech companies had widely been protected against being held liable for any illegal content or business conducted on their platforms.

"FOSTA attacks online speakers who speak favorably about sex work by imposing harsh penalties for any website that might be seen as 'facilitating' prostitution or 'contribute to sex trafficking,'” EFF said in a press release.

EFF's lawyer arguing the case, Robert Corn-Revere, has previously represented Backpage.com, a website that was shut down by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and its CEO Carl Ferrer, who pleaded guilty in three state courts to money laundering and conspiracy to facilitate prostitution.

Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, one of the architects of the law, said this is not a free speech issue but instead about protecting victims of sex trafficking.

“Victims of this abhorrent crime can finally have their day in court and the websites that knowingly facilitate sex trafficking are being shut down and being held liable for their actions,” he said. Portman led a 20 month U.S. Senate investigation that found Backpage complicit in trafficking. He says the shuttering of Backpage.com, which he called the “industry leader in sex trafficking,” is a victory.

Prior to passage of FOSTA-SESTA, Backpage's defense in response to charges that it proliferated prostitution and trafficking was that it's not responsible for ads posted on the site. That argument is based on Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, which says online service providers cannot be held liable for content provided by third parties.

After the law passed, Craiglist shut down its “personals” section.

FOSTA-SESTA is a definitive turning point for the internet and holds platforms accountable in an unprecedented way. EFF's constitutional challenge is championed by those who complain FOSTA-SESTA could create an advantage for bigger companies with the technology and money to make sure that their platforms comply with the law.

“Every effort to turn platforms into content police favors the well-established, well-capitalized platforms,” said Mike Godwin, senior fellow at the nonprofit research firm R Street Institute and the former general counsel for Wikimedia Foundation. “If you are a startup, you now have to hire a thousand lawyers and contract workers to screen content.”

But longtime advocate for survivors of child sex trafficking, Mary Mazzio, said EFF's constitutional challenge is disingenuous.

"The child sex trafficking survivors, along with the community of adult survivors, nonprofits, and NGOs who fought for the passage of FOSTA-SESTA, are dismayed to find that EFF, which began a disinformation campaign prior to the bill's passage, has continued its relentless assault on any attempt to hold websites accountable that engage in criminal conduct," Mazzio said.

Urgent call to tackle child exploitation

The Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion (MIGEPROF) together with partners have renewed calls to end child exploitation in Rwanda in order to contain cases of mental distress, early pregnancies, and sexually oriented risk-taking.

World Vision and MIGEPROF will spend US$2 million on a five-year campaign against child exploitation, a practice that consists of various forms of violence, among them, sexual abuse and child labour. The campaign was launched yesterday.

Some 437,000 children across the country are considered to be in child exploitation, according to the 2016 Child Labour Survey by the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR).

“The Rwandan constitution says that everyone has the responsibility of protecting children, including parents, neighbours, and others, and if they don't, they are going against the law,” said the Minister for Gender and Family Promotion, Espérance Nyirasafari.

In addition to figures from NISR, a report by MIGEPROF on violence against children and youth, which was conducted two years ago, showed that half of all girls and six out of ten boys experience violence during their childhoods.

This includes physical violence, sexual violence and emotional violence, which most of the time result from child labour.

“Perpetrators of violence against children are not foreigners; they are those people who have the responsibility to protect them including their parents, neighbours, teachers, boyfriends and friends,” the report reads in part.

The report says that children are more likely to be violent if they themselves have experienced violence.

Details of the report show that 12 per cent of physically abused boys have been violent towards another person compared to 4 per cent who have not been physically abused. In addition, 51 per cent of young men who were sexually abused in childhood had experienced mental distress compared to 21 per cent of those who had not been abused.

The same fact goes to girls in the same category, as 32 per cent of young women who had experienced emotional abuse as children had considered suicide, compared with 8 per cent of those who had not, the report indicates.

Many people think children should work, regardless of the types of job they are given to do, she said.

Every child, depending on their age can give a hand to the parents at home, the Minister said.

However, she added, “children under five years are not allowed to do anything like fetching water, but you can ask them to pass the message to someone else, which is a way of helping them grow mentally.”

“When we talk of worst forms of child labour, we are talking about those works which may hinder children from going to school, those works which are highly demanding and horrible compared to the level of a child like asking kids to work in farms, mining, fishing and other scaring works,” she said.

“Laws are there and they are enforced, some people have been punished, some companies and enterprises have been closed due to employing children, we are seeking a synergy from all Rwandans and partners so that they give information to security organs and local leaders in case they see any child labor practices,” she added.

Sean Kerrigan, the Country Director of World Vision Rwanda Programme, said they thought on this project in order to help everyone to play a role in ending child exploitation.

Recently, the lower chamber of the Parliament rejected article 5 of the Labour draft Law, which stipulated that children should start working at the age 16.

Parents' childhood trauma tied to behavior problems in kids

(Reuters Health) - Parents who had a lot of traumatic or stressful experiences during childhood may be more likely to have kids with behavioral problems, a U.S. study suggests.

Adverse childhood experiences can include witnessing parents fight or go through a divorce, having a parent with a mental illness or substance abuse problem, or suffering from sexual, physical or emotional abuse.

These childhood experiences have been linked to what's known as toxic stress, or wear and tear on the body that leads to physical and mental health problems that often continue from one generation to the next. But the exact effect of parents' trauma on their children's behavioral and emotional health isn't fully understood.

In the current study, researchers examined data on how many different types of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) were endured by the parents of 2,529 kids, and how often the kids experienced emotional or behavioral problems or attention issues.

Compared to children whose parents didn't experience any ACEs, children whose parents went through one type of adverse experience in childhood were 44 percent more likely to have hyperactivity and 56 percent more apt to have emotional or mental health issues, researchers report in Pediatrics.

When parents experienced at least four ACEs, their kids were twice as likely to have hyperactivity and four times more likely to have emotional or mental health problems.

“This demonstrates one way in which all of us carry our histories with us, which our study shows has implications for our parenting and our children's health,” said lead study author Dr. Adam Schickedanz, a pediatrics researcher at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles.

“Given that children's behavioral health is so strongly influenced by severe stresses in the formative relationships and experiences of their parents, it suggests that investments made now to prevent childhood adversity could yield lasting returns for health across generations,” Schickedanz said by email.

Mothers' experiences appeared to have a bigger impact on children's health than fathers' upbringings, the study found.

When mothers were exposed to one ACE growing up, their children were 85 percent more likely to be hyperactive and 92 percent more likely to have emotional or mental health problems. When mothers endured at least four ACEs, kids had triple the odds of hyperactivity and more than quintupled odds of emotional or mental health issues.

With fathers, one to three ACEs did not appear to increase their child's risk of hyperactivity or behavioral or mental health issues. However, when fathers experienced four or more ACEs, kids were 29 percent more likely to be hyperactive and more than twice as likely to have behavioral or mental health problems.

The study was not a controlled experiment designed to prove whether or how parents' childhood experience might directly impact the physical or mental health of their kids. Another limitation is that researchers were not able to assess individual resilience to adversity, which might influence how ACEs impacted parents or how these experiences affected the next generation.

Even so, the results add to evidence suggesting that ACEs can have long-lasting effects on families across generations, said Alonzo Folger, a researcher at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine in Ohio who wasn't involved in the study.

Among other things, chronic exposure to ACEs during childhood may make it harder for parents to bond with children and cope with normal but often stressful and emotionally taxing behaviors of infants and toddlers, Folger said by email.

“We increasingly recognize the disruptive nature of toxic stress caused by early life adversity and the importance of early intervention,” Folger said.

Parents should tell their child's doctor about any family history of ACEs, and if they don't bring it up, then pediatricians should initiate this conversation, said Dr. Ricardo Quinonez, chief of pediatric medicine at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston.

“This discussion may lead to early interventions to prevent the negative consequences of mental health in their own children,” Quinonez, who wasn't involved in the study, said by email.

Home battles: Managing angry children

Abuse of parents by their children is on the increase, but hope exists in the form of a non-violence resistance programme developed to tackle this largely hidden problem

by Margaret Jennings

CONFLICT between young people and their parents is a natural progression as teenagers attempt to establish themselves separately in the world.

It's almost expected, as parents brace themselves for what is seen as a normal developmental stage.

But that sometimes edgy communication has nothing whatsoever to do with Child to Parent Violence and Abuse (CPVA), where a child or adolescent under the age of 18 is controlling, coercing or dominating a parent or guardian through their abusive behaviour.

It's hard to believe, but the behaviour of children as young as eight is causing adults in many households in Ireland to walk on eggshells and because we find that difficult to grasp — because it hasn't received much airtime — parents can often feel shamed into silence and helplessness.

No social class or cultural background is spared: “It doesn't fit neatly into any one box and that's the challenge about it; if you could say ‘every family has x in common', but you can't say that, as the problem goes across all family and social classes, all cultural groupings and it appears in all kinds of different backgrounds,” says psychotherapist and lecturer in social work at NUIG, Declan Coogan.

There are three factor, however, that all families share in common. First, the parents feel totally alone and unsupported. Second, they feel shame, stigmatised and guilty. The third factor is that over the course of time, they develop habits and interactions in the family where there is violent or abusive behaviour.

“In some families, there is no physical violence towards the parents but there is emotional abuse and harassment and threats,” says Coogan.

In his recently published book Child to Parent Violence and Abuse: Family Interventions With Non-Violent Resistance, he mentions that some children go so far as to threaten to take their own lives, as a weapon in this abuse of power.

“All sorts of behaviours occur — from periodic name calling up to the very severe where it's physical violence — kicking, pulling hair, punching, kicking and that's less common than constant harassment,” he tells Feelgood.

The psychotherapist specialises in working collaboratively with parents with a model called Non-Violence Resistance (NVR) which helps them focus on taking action to change the interaction habits between their child and themselves which leads to the use of the abusive or violent behaviour.

The NVR model was drawn up by Coogan in 2009 as an action research project for his PhD, which saw him work in close collaboration with practitioners in the development of a two-day training programme for those working in children and family services.

Using the NVR model in partnership with the parents, the practitioner becomes a type of adviser or coach, supporting them to develop skills for de-escalation, self-control, resistance and protest.

“The programme is a non-blaming, systemic and relatively short-term intervention model that empowers parents and practitioners to take positive action in response to CPVA while respecting and protecting children and all family members,” he says.

“This empowers parents to take their place as a parent in the family. Parents commit to avoiding all forms of abusive behaviour and make a clear announcement to the family that specific types of behaviour are no longer acceptable.

“A clear distinction is also made between the abusive/violent behaviour — which is rejected and resisted — and the child, who is treated with respect and love as a member of the family, in addition to all other members of the family.”

There are now a number of NVR trained personnel in the country, but the problem is that a parent who is seeking support and help has no one central service which deals with the issue.

“CPVA doesn't fit neatly into any one category for service provision — for some children it could, for instance, be related to mental health issues, but for other kids, it's not,” he says. “And it's not a child protection issue because the parents are parenting well and managing the best they can and not abusing their children.

“Commonly, parents feel exhausted and worn out by the behaviour and think there will never be a solution. The NVR model is very hopeful and it's relatively short-term.”

Ten people have been trained in the NVR programme since 2013 at Parentline, the national telephone support service for parents, and its CEO, Rita O'Reilly, says their use of the model has had some very successful outcomes.

“There's definitely an increase in the number of calls to us regarding Child to Parent Violence and Abuse,” she says. “Up until seven years ago, we didn't have CPVA in the home on our records but we anecdotally heard about it and now we have observed it going up every year.”

Most of the calls to Parentline — 84% — are from mothers although some fathers are now also ringing to find out about the NVR support for violence and abuse in the home, says O'Reilly.

“We work with the parent over the phone, which is different to most people — everybody else does is on face to face, or in groups, but that allows us to offer it all over the country, and the parent can stay put and ring whatever time suits,” she says.

The person seeking help always remains anonymous and the support is given through the “core elements” of the very clear structure of the NVR programme.

Child to Parent Violence and Abuse: Family Interventions With Non-Violent Resistance by Declan Coogan, is published by JKPParentline: 1890-927277/ 01-8733500 www.parentline.ie

Santa Barbara Unified Spends $1M on Mental Health Services

Program Puts Therapists on Every Campus

by Keith Hamm

Starting in August, at least one mental-health therapist will be embedded at every Santa Barbara Unified School District campus. The roughly $1 million effort will cover all students, from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade. To coordinate the rollout and programming for the nine elementary schools, the district is partnering with CALM (Child Abuse Listening Mediation), a nonprofit headed by CEO Alana Walczak. “A child's ability to learn can be affected by witnessing domestic violence, for example,” she said, adding that sexual and emotional abuse, neglect, and being negatively impacted by a caregiver's substance abuse can also increase the risk of a child experiencing long-term mental-health issues later in life.

Walczak said the project will “help classrooms to become trauma-informed” by teaching teachers to recognize behavioral red flags and to make referrals for kids who need extra, outside help. “As stress levels drop, the learning environment improves,” Walczak said. CALM is about $250,000 shy of fully funding the effort, which includes $375,000 in district money and another roughly $250,000 raised privately, Walczak said. “If we don't have it all by August 21, we'll phase it in,” she added. “But we're confident it's going to happen.”

At the secondary level, the district is contributing about $500,000 and partnering with two nonprofits, the Family Service Agency ( FSA ) and the Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse ( CADA ). For students in the 7th through 12th grades, anxiety and depression rank high among mental-health issues, said FSA Executive Director Lisa Brabo, adding that CenCal Health is providing funding for students in the mild to moderate range, while the Santa Barbara County Department of Behavioral Health will be more focused on moderate to severe cases.

Both efforts will be evaluated as the 2018-19 school year progresses and, once established, will be better situated to compete for grants and state educational funding to address longevity concerns brought up by Board of Education members during last month's public hearing.

Eight victims get $1M settlement from Catholic order

by Mike LaBella

LAWRENCE — Outside St. Mary of the Assumption Parish late Wednesday morning, Robert Hoatson, president of Road to Recovery Inc., announced that a Roman Catholic order has agreed to pay $1 million to eight people who say they were sexually abused by the Revs. John Gallagher and Robert Turnbull during the 1970s and 1980s at Catholic schools in Lawrence and Reading.

Boston attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who has been at the forefront of representing victims of clergy sexual abuse, said the settlement with his clients and the Augustinian Province of Saint Thomas of Villanova in the Philadelphia area was reached last month during mediation.

He said the settlement avoided bringing a lawsuit against the Augustinians. Hoatson, whose nonprofit charity in New Jersey assists victims of sexual abuse and encourages them come forward with their stories, made the announcement.

"We Augustinians, taking seriously allegations of misconduct in these cases that occurred approximately 40 years ago, have dedicated resources to investigate them," Cher Rago, communications director for the Augustinian Province of Saint Thomas of Villanova, said in addressing the settlement. "Because we are committed to justice in upholding the dignity of every person, and in a desire to promote healing, we have concluded the claims made against our Province. At the same time, we continue to work diligently to ensure the safety and protection of all children and adults."

Garabedian said three of his clients, now adult women, were abused by a former parish priest who was also a coach at St. Mary's in Lawrence between 1973 and 1976. The victims were 9 to 12 years old at the time.

"He (Gallagher) was a swim coach and basketball coach for CYO, and would abuse young girls on the two teams in the rectory, and he would also take them on field trips, including a trip to Saratoga, New York."

Garabedian said five other people, now adult males, were abused by a priest who was also a teacher and athletic equipment manager while the victims, who were 13 and 14 at the time, attended Austin Preparatory School in Reading between 1977 and 1981.

"He would sexually abuse my clients (fondling and some digital penetration) at the Northmeadow Health & Racquet Club in Tewksbury, in the showers and in the swimming pool. And he would also sexually abuse them in a room next to his classroom at Austin Prep," Garabedian said. "It is difficult to believe that Father Turnbull's supervisors did not know he was sexually abusing as there were rumors about Turnbull among students. His supervisors turned their backs on innocent children."

The two priests have since died, Garabedian said.

Garabedian said claims were brought to the attention of the Augustinians about a year ago and that during mediation, an out-of-court settlement was reached that will provide a total of $1 million to be shared by his eight clients. 

During the brief presentation in front of St. Mary's in Lawrence, Hoatson read excerpts from a letter that Garbedian said was sent to the late Cardinal Bernard Law in 1992 by one of the female victims. He said Law never responded to the woman's letter.

"By not responding, my client was not given the opportunity to try to heal and gain a degree of closure," Garabedian said.

A letter disregarded

Hoatson said one of Gallagher's victims was sexually abused when she was attending fourth, fifth and sixth grade at the Catholic Inter-Parochial schools in Lawrence, noting those schools consisted of St. Mary, St. Lawrence and Holy Rosary.

"Typically, Father Gallagher would have me and my friends with him for some reason: to paint the gym, to count out the money from collections, because he was our coach. ... while the rest of the girls would be doing the work, he would call one of us to him," the woman stated in her letter to Law.

"As he sat facing the girls working, he would tell me to climb on his lap. This way I could not see the other girls. He would wrap my legs around him so that I was straddling him. He would push me very close to him ... and would insist that I hug him tightly and kiss him ... when he finished with me, he would release me and call up another girl and repeat his act on her."

Hoatson said the woman told Law that it was her desire to see Gallagher punished for the pain he caused her.

"This pain is still with me and will be a part of my being forever," the woman said in her letter.

Garabedian said the woman's letter to Law proves that the former archbishop of Boston knew of sexual abuse by priests.

"The rumors about him among the children were that he would also sexually abuse them at the YMCA in Lawrence and at the St. Joseph Plains Community Center," Garabedian said. "And at times he would abuse these girls in front of each other."

Garabedian called Gallagher a "pure predator."

"Obviously, his supervisors were not properly supervising him," Garabedian said. "Someone should have questioned why he was taking young girls on field trips and what he was doing on these trips."

Garabedian said Law should have warned parishioners and the public about Gallagher.

"But instead he participated in the coverup by hiding the fact that Father Gallagher was a sexual abuser," Garabedian said. "You have purportedly the most moral institution in the world, the Catholic church, acting the most immorally."

Garabedian said that for priests such as Gallagher and Turnbull to work within the geographic boundaries of the Archdiocese of Boston would have required permission.

He said priests such as Gallagher were shuffled from one parish to another.

"The cardinal or archdiocese had an obligation to inquire as to why these individuals were transferred into the Archdiocese of Boston," Garabedian said. "Questions should have been asked, including why are they coming, was there a history of sexual, and were they screened at all? It's another indication of how the Catholic Archdiocese has failed miserably to protect children."

More victims speaking out

Garabedian said the victims of clergy sexual abuse are still coming forward in great numbers.

"The damage caused by priests, predators and their supervisors is ongoing and everlasting. My clients, in coming forward, have empowered themselves and other victims and have made the world a safer place for children," he said.

"And also coming forward, my clients have transformed themselves from victims into survivors. They now understand that as children, they were not responsible for the sexual abuse and the crimes committed by the sexual predators and their supervisors," he continued.

Garabedian said the victms of clergy sexual abuse continue to suffer a host of troubles in the lives, ranging from lack of self-esteem to unnecessary guilt, to shame and embarrassment, to a lack of trust and a loss of religious faith.

Hoatson noted that since his organization was formed in 2003, it has provided a range of support services to more than 5,000 victims of clergy sexual abuse and their families.

"I attend these public events as an advocate and to encourage other victims to come to me," said Hoatson, who said he was a victim of clergy sexual abuse when he was a child and went on to serve as a Catholic priest for 14 years. "We'll do anything to help a victim get on the road to recovery."

ND Task Force on the Prevention of Sexual Abuse of Children seeks to improve

BISMARCK, N.D. - The North Dakota Task Force on the Prevention of Sexual Abuse of Children is looking at other states to see what works best in stopping child sexual abuse.

Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem says there was a 60-percent increase in child pornography cases in North Dakota in 2017. The North Dakota Task Force on the Prevention of Sexual Abuse of Children is seeing what will work in our state to stop child sexual abuse.

The Task Force is bringing in exports to expand this effort.

"To hear what others are doing, it gets us, it moves us up a step. It puts us way ahead of where you'd be if you didn't have that, because it gives us something to look at that's a threshold place to begin," said Anna Frissell, chairwoman for the Task Force.

A West Virginia State Director of Prevent Child Abuse gave some recommendations over the phone on how to prevent sexual abuse and to make North Dakota's Task Force better.

"Limiting one-on-one, if we can do that. Stop being strangers with our kids, and monitor their behavior, make sure they live in a safe environment. That really goes to what we're trying to create here," said Jim McKay, State Director of Prevent Child Abuse.

McKay also says nationwide, 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys become victims of sexual abuse by the time they're 18 years old.

Frissell says the next step is to present a report to the Governor's office and the Legislature council this fall before the next session, so North Dakota can have an on-going task force.

Basic email blunder exposed possible victims of child sexual abuse

When it comes to mistakenly putting recipients' email addresses in the “To” field instead of the “Bcc” field, happy endings aren't common. But it was most particularly damaging when that common email misstep was made by the UK's Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), which sent out a bulk email that identified possible victims of child sexual abuse.

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) said on Wednesday that it's fined the IICSA £200,000 (USD $260,000) over the blunder.

The Inquiry covers England and Wales. It was set up in 2014 to investigate the extent to which institutions – specifically, according to the BBC , local authorities, religious organizations, the armed forces and public and private institutions – failed to protect children from sexual abuse.

The Inquiry's failure to keep confidential and sensitive personal information secure is a breach of the Data Protection Act 1998, the ICO said.

According to the ICO, on 27 February 2017, an IICSA staff member sent a blind carbon copy (Bcc) email to 90 Inquiry participants telling them about a public hearing. After somebody spotted an error in the email, a correction was sent out. But in that correction, email addresses were mistakenly entered into the “to” field, instead of the “Bcc” field.

That glitch let recipients see each other's email addresses and thereby identified them as possible victims of child sexual abuse.

Participants' full names were included – or were part of an attached email signature – in 52 of the email addresses.

One of the recipients alerted the Inquiry to the breach. He or she entered two more email addresses into the “to” field, then clicked on “Reply All.”

It snowballed from there. First, the Inquiry sent out three emails, asking the recipients to delete the original email and not to circulate it any further. One of those emails generated 39 “Reply All” emails.

One recipient told the ICO he was “very distressed” by the security breach. In total, the Inquiry and the ICO received 22 complaints.

ICO Director of Investigations Steve Eckersley:

This incident placed vulnerable people at risk, which is concerning. IICSA should and could have done more to ensure this did not happen.

People's email addresses can be searched via social networks and search engines, so the risk that they could be identified was significant.

The error could have been avoided with more staff training, a different email account, and a lot less trust in the IT company hired to manage the mailing list, the ICO said. Specifically, its findings:

• The Inquiry failed to use an email account that could send a separate email to each participant.
  
• The Inquiry failed to provide staff with any (or any adequate) guidance or training on the importance of double checking that the participant's email addresses were entered into the “Bcc” field.
  
• The Inquiry hired an IT company to manage the mailing list and relied on advice from the company that it would prevent individuals from replying to the entire list.
  
• In July 2017 a recipient clicked on ‘Reply All' in response to an email from the Inquiry, via the mailing list, and revealed their email to the entire list.
  
• The Inquiry breached their own privacy notice by sharing participants' emails addresses with the IT company without their consent.

What to do?

It's not easy to muster up good advice for people who make the To/Bcc mistake. The fact that it happens so regularly (if you haven't done it, I bet you know somebody who has) suggests that there's either a basic design flaw in email, or that normal email clients might be the wrong tool for the job.

If you're sending sensitive emails you might want to look at hiding your email client's “To” and “CC” fields so that you simply can't enter email addresses in a way that allows them to be shared. Alternatively, you could use an email marketing platform that sends an individual copy of your email to every individual on a mailing list.

Budget bump means stability for child abuse detectors

The interviews state law enforcement and family services use to investigate accusations of child abuse will continue in the coming year without the same financial trials faced during fiscal 2018 because of a restoration in funds to the state operating budget.

The Children's Advocacy Center of Delaware was considering consolidating two of its locations and leaving unfilled an interviewer position after a $100,000 cut to its budget in 2018. The Legislature increased by 4 percent the operating budget for fiscal year 2019, giving that money back and securing the nonprofit's confidence that it can keep working effectively.

Empty interviewer spots created a backlog of children waiting to visit the centers late last year. The backlog affected police and family services personnel who rely on those interviews with children to make determinations in child abuse cases. 

The financial shortfall was temporarily corrected earlier this year when a Delaware Criminal Justice Council grant gave the center a one-time infusion of nearly $100,000. But without more funding, CAC soon would've been in the same spot again.

Child abuse fighters can go full strength thanks to new money

State dollars to the center dropped from $990,800 in 2017 to $891,700 in 2018 because of a shrinking statewide operating budget. 

The operating budget for the fiscal year, which began in July covers the full $4.25 billion Gov. John Carney proposed in January with $20 million more on top.

"I feel very confident," said CAC Executive Director Randy Williams. "I feel very well supported by the governor's office and we've had steadfast support from the legislature."

There are about 1,500 children interviewed by CAC employees every year. These children are suspected victims of physical and sexual abuse and neglect.

Their interviews are recorded so all investigators have access to a single retelling of the child's experiences, which can be used in prosecutions. Forensic interviewers are trained to ask the right questions without re-traumatizing child abuse victims. 

Budget cuts can only add to delay for Delaware's child abuse victims

The nonprofit uses state and federal funds to pay salaries. CAC remains a part of the operating budget because the service it provides the state otherwise would have to be shouldered by state-run agencies, Williams said. 

Since the Justice Council grant, CAC has filled its vacant interviewer position and put that new employee to work with children, Williams said. The restoration of the money taken from their normal budget will maintain that new position long term, he said.

Changes to the FY19 operating budget also created room for 30 new caseworkers in the Division of Family Services to bolster investigations into child abuse and neglect.

New Mexico's child abuse tracking system has become obsolete

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - Officials say New Mexico's child-abuse tracking system has become obsolete since it was launched more than 20 years ago.

Officials tell the Albuquerque Journal that the computer system is so difficult to access that they need to take printouts to court or on family visits.

Rep. Gail Chasey, who works as a court-appointed attorney in abuse and neglect cases, compares the system to a dinosaur.

Chasey says she sometimes loses time crossing out irrelevant data on the printouts by hand.

Lawmakers suggested upgrading the case management system during a Tuesday meeting where they brainstormed ways to help the New Mexico agency responsible for protecting children from abuse.

The state's Children, Youth and Families Department has been criticized after a few shocking abuse cases came to light.

http://www.kcbd.com/story/38675658/new-mexicos-child-abuse-tracking-system-has-become-obsolete

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United Kingdom

Child Abuse Study Group Fined For Email Breach

A group that studies child sexual abuse has been fined £200,000 by the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) for identifying possible victims in a bulk email.

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IISCA) failed to secure confidential data, putting it in violation of the Data Protection Act 1998, according to the ICO.

The IISCA was founded in 2014 to probe if institutions failed to protect children from sexual abuse.

The incident occurred when an IICSA staff member sent a bcc email to 90 study participants in February 2017 to announce a public hearing.

A follow-up email was sent to correct an error. In this instance, though, email addresses were entered into the ‘to' field instead of the ‘bcc' field, allowing recipients to see email addresses of other possible victims of child sexual abuse, the ICO alleges.

Alerted to the problem by a recipient who had entered two further email addresses into the ‘to' field before clicking on Reply All, the IISCA sent three emails asking individuals to delete the original email.

One of those emails generated 39 Reply All emails, the ICO charges.

An IT company hired by the IISCA to manage the mailing list said it would prevent individuals from replying to the entire list. But the IICSA breached its privacy notice by sharing email addresses with the IT vendor without the participants' consent, the ICO contends.

The ICO received 22 complaints, including one from a person who was “very distressed.”

“This incident placed vulnerable people at risk, which is concerning,” states Steve Eckersley, ICO director of investigations. “IISCA should and could have done more to ensure this did not happen.”

Eckersley adds: “People's email addresses can be searched via social networks and search engines, so the risk that they could be identified was significant.”

The IICSA has apologized or the episode, stating: "After a wide-ranging review by external experts, we have amended our handling processes for personal data to ensure they are robust and the risk of a further breach is minimized," according to published reports

Mainstream political parties and their promises to curtail child abuse

Sexual exploitation of children is an open secret in Pakistan – one which we are still too ashamed to speak up about. With reports suggesting that up to 90 per cent of street children across the country are victims of sexual assault and each new day, 11 new cases of abuse and other heinous crimes are registered, it is shocking that this phenomenon still remains a taboo.

With little being done by law enforcement agencies to crack down on such activities, a steep rise in such incidents has been observed.

In January, the high profile rape and murder case of a seven-year-old minor from Kasur caused national outrage. This is just one case which gained national prominence, thousands of others go unreported or are shoved under the rug.

With the country preparing for polls, it would be a timely exercise to examine mainstream political parties' contributions and opinions on such incidents as it reflects their will to do ‘more' for the society.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)

The Pakistan Muslime League – Nawaz (PML-N) ruled the country for the past five years and had the strength in the assembly to push through laws which safeguarded the rights of minors and afforded protection to them.

In 2018, in the aftermath of the high profile Kasur rape and murder case, Sanaullah said, “a child's safety is the parent's responsibility.” While party leaders condemned the acts, Sanaullah's stance on the matter gave very little relief to the party. Earlier this year, Shehbaz formed a committee for the prevention of child abuse and for recommendations to ensure the government played its part. The provincial ministers of law and education overlook the committee.

The 14th National Assembly achieved little in its fight against the crucial issue. In 2016, the Senate passed a bill which criminalised sexual assault against minors and became the first such bill in the country's legislative history. However, the punishment for the crime was a modest seven years in prison. Last year, a bill attempting to enhance the punishment of child abusers was rejected by the NA's sub-committee.

Naeema Kishwar Khan, the convener of the committee, attempted to justify the move and said that sexual abuse does not “amount to rape”.

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP)

Enjoying almost unhindered power since 2008 in Sindh, Pakistan Peoples Party Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari claimed in January 2018 that the provincial government is attempting to inculcate an awareness program on child sexual abuse in the school curriculum. The party has also supported capital punishment and public hangings of those involved in such crimes. While these appear to be tall promises, the assembly passed the bill and Bilawal announced swift implementation as well.

In January, the PPP chairperson announced that the provincial government has set up child protection units in all 29 districts of the province. He also announced that life skills will be introduced as part of the school curriculum from the new academic year. “Earlier, people did not discuss child abuse openly but after the Kasur incident they want to find out the solution to such problems,” he added.

The Sindh Assembly was informed that more than 960 cases of abuse against minors were reported in Sindh since 2011, further showing the need for effective implementation and execution of legislation.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)

The 2014 documentary Pakistan's Hidden Shame  by Mohammed Naqvi revealed that nine out of ten street boys in Peshawar are subjected to sexual abuse in the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf ruled Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. PTI Chairperson Imran Khan promised to address the issue in a meeting, however, there is little evidence to support Imran actually fulfilled the promise he made publicly.

A glance at the K-P Assembly archives of the last five years shows that the topic was hardly spoken of in the sessions. Interestingly, it was a PML-N lawmaker which tabled the motion to condemn the Kasur incident and call for exemplary punishment against the accused.

Senior journalist Aamir Ahmed Khan told The Express Tribune , “child abuse has never been a priority of the governments.”

The statement gestured to the lack of implementation of laws and security in the country, but also the government's inability to tackle or conduct constructive dialogue on such a pressing issue.

Analyst Mosharraf Zaidi expressed anger at the lack of political parties formed to represent the children and fight for their case. With no representation, Zaidi believes that minors of Pakistan are stuck in a ‘cycle' which will never see justice served to the victims.

Child Abuse Videos And Racist Memes Ignored By Facebook

A new investigation finds fault with content moderators

Tech companies have long been facing continued criticism over their lack of corporate social responsibility for not acting on the fake news and hate speech hosted on their sites. In attempt to be transparent, this time last year Facebook released information about how they were trying to tackle hate speech.

In a post titled 'Who Should Decide What Is Hate Speech in an Online Global Community?' Richard Allan, Facebook's VP of EMEA Public Policy revealed that the company removes an average of 66,000 posts reported as hate speech a week.

Though that might sound a respectable figure in response to a Sisyphean task, questions about the content that doesn't violate their hate speech policy continue to be asked of the social media site.

Last night Channel 4 aired an undercover investigation into the spurious ethics of Facebook's content moderation. The programme, Inside Facebook: Secrets of the Social Network, delved into what it takes to remove content and why seemingly blatant racist or violent material remains on the site.

Video footage for the programme was obtained by a reporter who went undercover as a Facebook moderator at CPL Resources - a content moderation contractor based in Dublin that has worked with Facebook since 2010.

One video secretly recorded inside a training session on hate speech showed a racist meme which reads 'When your daughters [sic] first crush is a little negro boy' with an illustration of a mother drowning her white daughter in a bath. The image, which has been taken down since the documentary aired, was allowed to circulate on the site "for a while".

"This is an ignore because it implies a lot but to reach the actual violation you have to jump through a lot of hoops to get there," the content moderation trainer in the video explains. "There's no attack actually on the negro boy, it's implied."

Dispatches reveals the racist meme that Facebook moderators used as an example of acceptable content to leave on their platform.

Facebook have removed the content since Channel 4's revelations.
Warning: distressing content. pic.twitter.com/riVka6LcPS

— Channel 4 Dispatches (@C4Dispatches) July 17, 2018

In another distressing moment it was revealed that a video of a man beating a young boy was "marked as disturbing" but left on the site for years.

In the Channel 4 footage, the employee giving the training session is asked what procedures are in place after marking the child abuse content as disturbing. He explains that action is only taken when "it meets our escalation criteria" adding that until then, "as far as we're concerned it's just junk floating around the internet"

Channel 4 says that their investigation found that unless video content was streamed live to Facebook, "it does not usually report videos of physical child abuse to the police"

This graphic video depicting a child abuser beating a young boy was left on Facebook for several years, despite requests to have it taken down. #Dispatches went undercover to investigate why the social media network is leaving extreme content on its site.

WATCH NOW @Channel4 . pic.twitter.com/3Ft6H5d64q

— Channel 4 Dispatches (@C4Dispatches) July 17, 2018

Viewers were outraged to discover that Facebook remove all content where nipples were exposed, even in images of breastfeeding, but are willing to ignore instances of violence against children.

In discussing an inflammatory post about Muslims which read "Muslim immigrants should "f*** off back to (their) own country" the moderator recommended ignoring the content because, "they're still Muslims but they're immigrants, so that makes them less protected."

The investigation also found the Facebook page of jailed right-wing campaigner Tommy Robinson was given special allowances meaning 'frontline moderators' were not allowed to remove material from their pages even if they violate Facebook policies.

Facebook's willingness to protect pages with huge numbers of followers despite the content they post was summed up by a moderator who commented, "Obviously they have a lot of followers so they're generating a lot of revenue for Facebook," of the now-deleted Britain First page.

Nauseous watching Channel 4 #dispatches exposé of Facebook's moderation policies, much of which is filmed undercover in Dublin. Lack of corporate social responsibility is not new but social media takes to another level. So little regard for human dignity, it's sickening.

— Mary McGill (@missmarymcgill) July 17, 2018

Facebook's reticence to act might seem shocking but the company has long been trying to avoid wading into judging the ethics of the content hosted on their platform. These decisions are at the heart of struggle going at the likes of Facebook, YouTube and Twitter as they try to protest they are technology companies to avoid the regulation that comes with being a media company.

Governments need to step up here. Social networks cannot be allowed to police themselves. Facebook or any company with that kind of power should not be allowed to decide what is good for society and what is not. #dispatches

— Colette Sexton (@colette_sexton) July 17, 2018

In Zuckerberg's testimony to congress earlier this year he was asked about what Facebook was doing to moderate content on the site. There he peddled the same answer given previously that the company was increasing the number of human moderators and investing in artificial intelligence to aid the process.

All of which might suggest a commitment to saving the site from drowning in videos of children being abused and photoshopped images of Britain overrun by Muslims. However as long as Facebook's policy on hate speech remains so inconsistent and apathetic it's hard to imagine much will change.

Revealing the real reason Facebook remain resistant to tackling hate speech a moderator told the hidden camera, "If you start censoring too much then people stop using the platform. It's all about money at the end of the day."

YouTube bans account of parents whose prank videos depicted child abuse

The FamilyOFive account has been terminated for good

YouTube has terminated the FamilyOFive account that belonged to Maryland parents Mike and Heather Martin. Both parents were charged with child neglect last fall, sentence to five years probation, and lost custody of two of their five children after using the kids to make viral prank videos that featured depictions of child abuse. Pressure has been mounting on YouTube to take action against the account after it was discovered the Martins were still active on the platform. The account's most recent video was posted four days ago.

The Martins claimed their children, the youngest of whom was 10 years old as of last year, were largely acting in the videos. However, verbal shouting matches and depictions of physical violence, alongside evidence that their children sustained injuries while filming the videos, received widespread condemnation from members of the YouTube community who claimed the couple were exploiting their children and monetizing disturbing depictions of child abuse. One outspoken critic was prominent YouTuber Philip DeFranco, whose videos on the subject shined a continued spotlight on the couple's behavior.

Following the child neglect charge, the Martins moved from Maryland to West Virginia with their three remaining children, and they've been operating the channel under the new name after changing it from its initial DaddyOFive title. At the channel's height, it had more than 750,000 subscribers and racked up more than 175 million views. Now, searching for FamilyOFive videos on YouTube will still pull up thumbnails and listings for the account's videos, but clicking on them will display an onscreen statement reading announcing the termination.

“Content that endangers children is unacceptable to us. We have worked extensively alongside experts in child safety to make sure we have strict policies and are aggressively enforcing them. Given this channel owner's previous strikes for violating our Guidelines prohibiting child endangerment, we're removing all of his channels under our Terms of Service,” reads a statement from YouTube provided to CBS-affiliate WUSA9. YouTube now requires that videos featuring children comply with local child labor laws.

WUSA9 also obtained a statement from the Martins:

Our family has worked very hard to heal and reestablish ourselves over the past 18 months. Through a lot of hard work and introspection, we are all doing well, and are happy. YouTube is something we enjoy as a family, and we will continue to do it, within the strict boundaries we have set for ourselves. For the sake of our privacy and continued healing, I have no further comment or anything past, or present at this time.

Lasting health impact follows child abuse

Child abuse and neglect must be treated as a public health issue

by Richard Krugman and Mary Woolley

An estimated 1 in 4 children experience some form of child abuse or neglect in their lifetimes. This type of unimaginable trauma contributes to depression, problems at school, violence, diabetes, obesity, substance abuse, and suicide. To significantly reduce child abuse or neglect, we must begin treating them right away as serious public health problems by expanding public and private sector funding for research, training, and prevention.

Why the sense of urgency? In a new national public opinion survey commissioned by our organizations, Research!America and the National Foundation to End Child Abuse and Neglect (EndCAN), a substantial percentage of those surveyed said child abuse and neglect is a problem in their local communities, and they know someone who has experienced it.

More than half of African-Americans (54 percent) and Hispanics (51 percent), along with 43 percent of non-Hispanic whites and 34 percent of Asians, said they personally consider child abuse and neglect a “serious problem” in the United States — but don't believe others have the same opinion. In fact, only 39 percent of African-Americans, 38 percent of Hispanics, 29 percent of Asians, and 27 percent of non-Hispanic whites think that others view it as a serious problem. The survey shows that public awareness — including the awareness that many of our neighbors believe that child abuse and neglect a serious issue — is lacking and must be the first step in tackling this public health crisis.

Who bears the responsibility for ending child abuse?

According to a majority of all racial and ethnic groups surveyed, child and family services, followed by state and federal governments and then law enforcement, bear most responsibility to end child abuse and neglect. Across populations, most people agree that state and federal governments should fund research to better understand child abuse and neglect, find ways to prevent it, and intervene when needed. Non-profit organizations, academia, and the private sector should also play a role, the survey respondents said.

EndCAN, where one of us (R.K.) serves as the board chair, has joined the fight to end child abuse and neglect, with support from elected officials and research and public health communities across the country. Its goal is to stimulate and lead a nationwide movement to support training, prevention, advocacy, and research on child abuse and neglect with the intent of changing the perception of this issue as not just a social and legal problem but also as a health, mental health, and public health problem that can be treated and prevented.

A strong majority of survey respondents identified several priorities for research: finding ways to prevent each form of child abuse and neglect, identifying causes of abusive behavior and treatments to stop it, and developing best treatments for victims of abuse and neglect. Compared to other health threats that harm children, such as cancer, heart disease, and diabetes, we are decades behind in funding research to understand the causes of and change the outcomes for abused and neglected children.

To achieve a culture change in how we identify, prevent, and treat child abuse and neglect, it is imperative that the public health community and everyone with a stake in this issue work together to advocate for more research and evidence-based strategies to ensure the well-being of children and their families.

It's time to start a new national conversation about child abuse and neglect, break the silence around it, and take action to end it. Our communities are depending on it.

Richard Krugman, M.D., is the board chair of the National Foundation to End Child Abuse and Neglect, a pediatrician, and professor at the Kempe Center at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. Mary Woolley is the president and CEO of Research!America, the nation's largest not-for-profit alliance working to make research to improve health a higher national priority.

Officials: New Mexico child abuse tracking system obsolete

ALBUQUERQUE - New Mexico's child-abuse tracking system has become obsolete since it was launched more than 20 years ago, officials said.

Officials told the Albuquerque Journal that the computer system is so difficult to access that they need to take printouts to court or on family visits.

Rep. Gail Chasey, who works as a court-appointed attorney in abuse and neglect cases, said she sometimes loses time crossing out irrelevant data that the system gave her, she said.

“It's just a mess,” Chasey said.

Lawmakers discussed upgrading the case management system during a Tuesday meeting where they brainstormed ways to help the New Mexico agency responsible for protecting children from abuse.

However, they did not suggest that the old system, known as the Family Automated Client Tracking System or FACTS, had any part in a few shocking abuse cases that came to light.

Officials are not able to login to the system using smartphones or laptops, said Jeremy Howard, the chief data officer for the state's Children, Youth and Families Department.

Other headaches include information disappearing when the system breaks down and getting information on a related child, and not the one workers need.

The department has launched a new web portal where law enforcement officers or others working in the field can access basic case information.

Employees are also able to call an intake office for immediate information.

The department is planning a replacement for FACTS, Howard said.

He did not say what the timeline for the replacement was or whether the department has secured funding for it.

“I think we're trying to move in the right direction,” he told lawmakers.

Couple arrested in child abuse case are faith healing believers

A Caldwell man is in jail after investigators say he sexually abused his four daughters. His wife is also in jail after she failed to tell authorities about what was happening.

“She stated that she chose not to go to law enforcement and not to go to protective services because it was against her belief system,” said Canyon County Sheriff Kieran Donahue.

The Canyon County Sheriff's Office arrested Lester and Sarah Kester on July 11.

The family is affiliated with the Followers of Christ Church. Followers of the church are known for their faith healing beliefs and refusing medical care for children and adults, and instead choosing to pray.

The sexual abuse went on for a period of 16 years and until the four girls were between the ages of 10 and 12 years old, according to the Canyon County Sheriff's Office.

Sarah Kester says she tried to protect her children by praying for the demon to leave her husband.

While Lester Kester admitted to various forms of sexual contact with his daughters and says he told detectives that he had been consumed by "a bad guy" or a "demon,” according to sheriff's office.

For years, faith healing has been a hot topic debate in Idaho

Under the faith-healing exemption, parents are protected from charges when they decline medical care for their children on religious grounds.

“This is one of those ramifications where you've been indoctrinated to not got to the authorities when you know damn well you should be going to the authorities in a case like this. The Legislature has to take this thing by the horns and address it once and for all and really do the right thing,” said Donahue. “We're one of six states that keep this thing in place, that's an embarrassment. it truly is and we need to address it.”

Supporters of the exemption say faith healing is a matter of freedom of religion.

The Kesters are scheduled to appear in court on July 26.

Authorities: Teacher saved child from alleged child abuse

ACKLEY, Iowa (KCCI) -- A concerned teacher potentially saved the life a 9-year-old north-central Iowa child whose parents face accusations of abuse and torture, authorities said.

Traci Lynn Tyler, 39, and the child's biological father, Alex Craig Shadlow, 30, were arrested Wednesday and charged with first-degree kidnapping, according to the Hardin County Sheriff's Department. The child was locked under basement stairs and deprived of food, among other disturbing allegations, according to court documents.

A teacher at school, which is just across the street from the couple's Ackley home, noticed that the child was incredibly underweight, was always asking for food and was losing patches of hair, according to court documents.

Authorities said that the child eventually confided in that teacher all the horror he endured.

“You just never know what goes on behind closed doors,” said Mitch Mortvedt, with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation. “He was being locked in this little cabinet underneath the stairs every night.”

Court papers reveal horrific details about what the couple are accused of doing, such as locking the child in a 6-foot-by-6-foot enclosed area in the basement with no light, trapped there for nine hours a day or longer. The child slept on a cement floor with no pillow or bedding and had to use a tin can as a toilet, according to documents.

“He would come to school hungry, malnourished, would be asking and somewhat begging for food,” Mortvedt said.

A teacher noticed the warning signs and contacted the Iowa Department of Human Services, which authorities and child advocates said saved the boy's life.

“They heard the things that he said about what was going on at home, and they didn't miss it or think, ‘Well that's funny,'” said Alli Moerman, with Prevent Child Abuse Iowa.

She said people should never dismiss warning signs and always believe a child.

“Kids are pretty innocent,” Moerman said. “They don't make up these horrible things that would be going on.”

In this case, the horror also included mental torture. According to court documents, Tyler and Shadlow told the child that a “dog has died” and was buried in the same confined space.

Authorities said the child suffered post-traumatic stress symptoms but is doing well since being removed from the home 10 months ago.

Officials said the high-profile child abuse cases of 16-year-olds Sabrina Ray and Natalie Finn, who died under similar circumstances of malnourishment, could have contributed to a different ending in this case.

“The public has a heightened awareness of what's going on,” Mortvedt said. Advocates hope that the awareness comes with a sense of responsibility to protect children.

“What we've seen in community members can make a difference when they speak up,” Moerman said.

Authorities said it took a while to file charges because they had a lot of interviews and evidence to examine.

'Soul-crushing' death wakes Japan to child abuse

Japan on Friday has announced the emergency measures nationwide to confirm the safety of all preschoolers with help of law enforcement officials following the death of a five-year-old girl.

Japan is taking emergency steps to boost the number of child welfare workers by 60 percent within five years, spurred by the death of a child whose handwritten notes seeking forgiveness from her abusive parents have shaken the nation.

The death in March of the five-year-old girl, Yua Funato, was "soul-crushing," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said, in a case that exposes the shortcomings in Japan's child welfare services long targeted by critics.

"Mama, I will make myself do much, much better tomorrow than I did today, without being told by Papa and Mama, so please forgive me, please, I beg you, forgive me," Yua pleaded in a notebook used for writing drills forced on her by her stepfather, who also kicked and beat her.

She weighed 12 kg (26 lbs), or about as much as the average two-year-old, at the time of her death, media said. Yua's parents have been charged over the death, which police said was due to pneumonia-induced blood poisoning caused by malnutrition.

Announcing the emergency measures on Friday, Japan said it would also order local authorities nationwide to confirm the safety of all preschoolers, relying on the help of law enforcement officials, if necessary.

"The government will work as one to create a society that protects the lives of children," its top spokesman, Yoshihide Suga, told a news conference.

Welfare workers refused

Three weeks before Yua died, her mother had refused to let welfare workers see her at the family's apartment in Tokyo, the head of the local authority in Japan's capital said.

He said the workers did not insist on seeing Yua because the family was no longer under official supervision, and they wanted to build an amicable relationship with the family, which had recently moved from the western prefecture of Kagawa.

Despite rights enshrined in child welfare law, children in Japan have no independent advocate or representation, unlike other developed countries such as Britain and the United States, leaving their well-being in the hands of welfare workers.

Doubling of child abuse

That could be dangerous, experts say, since the workers are public servants often rotated out every several years, many with no social welfare experience or skill in proper assessments.

"In practice, the way local authorities operate is all over the place," said former welfare minister Yasuhisa Shiozaki, even though the government has set out guidelines for the workers.

About 2,000 child welfare workers are to be added to the current figure of about 3,250, which has not kept pace with a doubling in reports of child abuse over the five years to March 2017, to reach 122,578.

Welfare workers' failure to identify and tackle the risks Yua faced may have proved fatal for her, a pattern seen in many abuse deaths of children, said Dr Fujiko Yamada of the Japanese Medical Society on Child Abuse and Neglect.

When her family lived in Kagawa prefecture, Yua was taken into protection twice in quick succession during the period from late 2016 to mid-2017, after showing signs of physical abuse.

Last July, authorities released her under supervision, including regular observation by her doctor, who, in each of the following two months, alerted welfare workers to renewed signs of physical abuse, the head of the local authority told Reuters.

Did not want to go home

Yua had also said she did not want to go home, which experts called an immediate red flag.

"I want to know why the authorities didn't take any action," Yamada told politicians at a meeting last month. "How the words of the doctor, and Yua herself, could be taken so lightly is beyond comprehension."

The head of the Kagawa local authority said the idea of removing Yua more permanently from her parents was dropped after they refused, and officials assessed her injuries as insufficient to convince a family court to override their wishes.

According to the national daily The Mainichi newspaper,  Yua told social workers, "I don't need daddy and mommy."

She also told them, "My other daddy was better," referring to her biological father.

When a Parent's Beliefs About Medicine Become Child Abuse

Parents have a lot of leeway in deciding what medical care their child receives, but sometimes refusing care for their child tips over into neglect.

An Oregon couple who believed in faith healing were sentenced to six years in prison earlier this month for criminal charges related to the death of their newborn daughter, Ginnifer, last year.

Sarah and Travis Mitchell are members of the Followers of Christ Church, a faith-healing sect that shuns modern medicine.

They're the fifth set of parents from the church to face criminal charges over the past nine years for failing to seek medical care for their children, according to The Washington Post .

In the United States, adults can refuse any medical care, as long as they're competent to make their own decisions.

But it gets complicated when parents deny treatment for their children, especially when religion is involved.

“The U.S. values religious freedom to the point where states are willing to grant parents the right to refuse even life-saving medical treatments for their children if the parents can show that there's a religious tenet that would be violated by administering the treatment,” said Efthimios Parasidis, JD, a professor of law and public health at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio.

Different faiths and medical treatment

The Followers of Christ Church aren't alone in refusing medical treatments because of their beliefs. Christian Scientists and Jehovah's Witnesses do as well, to varying degrees.

But Arthur Caplan, PhD, a bioethics professor at the NYU School of Medicine in New York City, says you can't always know what parents will choose for their children based on religious beliefs.

“People sometimes hear that somebody's a Jehovah's Witness or a Christian Scientist or an Orthodox Jew, and they make assumptions about what they're going to permit or allow,” he said. “But in my experience, that isn't true.”

Parents who refuse medical care for themselves may allow it for their children. Some parents may decline medical care for their children for less serious conditions, but may agree to it in more extreme situations.

Caplan also cautions against judging parents too harshly for following their religious beliefs.

“You need to keep in mind that parents are trying to do what's best for their kids,” Caplan said. “They are not doing this because they hate their kids or want to harm them.”

State laws vary on religious exemptions

State law determines whether denying a child medical care because of religious reasons is legally considered neglect, sometimes known as medical neglect.

Oregon is one of a handful of states that doesn't allow religious exemptions from criminal or civil charges for medical neglect of children.

As of last year, though, 43 states had some level of exemption for parents who withhold medical care from their children on religious grounds, according to CHILD USA.

In those states, if a parent refuses medical care for a child and opts instead for only spiritual treatment, the child won't be considered “neglected” under the law, even if they're harmed or die.

The laws vary among states, but nine have religious exemptions for negligent homicide, manslaughter, or capital murder: Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Ohio, Louisiana, Mississippi, Virginia, Washington, and West Virginia.

The number of religious-related medical neglect cases is small compared to other types of child abuse and neglect in the country, but child advocates are still concerned.

“Faith-based medical neglect is the only kind of child abuse and neglect that's actually protected by law in many states,” said Rita Swan, co-founder of the group Children's Healthcare Is a Legal Duty.

Swan has written a memoir, “The Last Strawberry,” about the death of her son in 1977 as a result of relying on Christian Science practitioners to heal him.

The extent of religious-related medical neglect in the United States is unknown, partly because of spotty records and many cases not being reported.

Child advocates, though, have documented 185 child deaths and stillbirths in Idahoan families with religious beliefs against medical care since Idaho enacted a faith-healing exemption in the 1970s.

“We call Idaho the worst in the nation, because it not only has very bad laws, but it has a lot of people who have religious beliefs against medical care,” Swan said.

Religion is only one of several reasons that parents may use for keeping their child from undergoing a medical treatment. Safety concerns and personal preferences also come into play.

But Caplan says that American society tends to be a “little more sympathetic” when parents refuse medical care for their children because of religious reasons. But he doesn't really see a “huge difference” between that and refusing for other reasons.

Bette Bottoms, PhD, a professor of psychology and law and dean emerita of the Honors College at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said that “even in states where there is a religious exemption, courts still can intervene and require medical care if they believe a child is in danger of death.”

“A lot of times people don't notice the neglect,” she added. “So the courts can't even get involved, because they don't know when this is happening.”

When does refusing care become neglect?

In this country, parents have a lot of leeway in determining medical care for their child. So the exact point at which refusing care tips over into medical neglect isn't always clear.

“It's impossible to draw a bright-line rule that's going to derive a perfect outcome in every circumstance,” Parasidis said.

Bottoms thinks that it depends on what treatment is being refused.

“Medical neglect occurs as soon as you have a child suffering from something which we know how to treat with modern science,” she said, “but instead the parents choose to not treat at all, or to treat only with something like prayer.”

Caplan says that instead of a clear line, doctors and courts can use several criteria to decide when the state needs to intervene.

Courts may be more likely to step in if the treatment that parents are refusing for their child is well-established, such as insulin for diabetes or antibiotics for meningitis.

“You can't have parents sacrificing their children when there are known cures available, whatever their reason,” Caplan said. “But parents get more discretion when something is not proven.”

Urgency matters, too.

Parasidis said that “if there's some imminent threat to a child's life, that's a very different story than wanting to give the child the hepatitis B vaccine.”

He adds that these cases aren't just about what the doctors and social workers say, but also what the religion says.

“In court, you see judges actually calling in the religious leaders and asking them specific questions about what in their religion speaks to medical interventions,” Parasidis said.

And then there's age: “Let's say a child is 17. They're not legally mature adults, but they probably can participate in the decision. So then they begin to get some weight in what's going on,” Caplan said.

Based on these and other criteria, the “line” starts to fall into place.

Are religious exemption laws working?

As for the religious exemption laws, not everyone agrees on them.

Swan and other child advocates continue to push for states to repeal their religious exemption laws, the way Oregon did in 2011.

“I think instead the state should have laws that indicate that all children are valued by the community,” Swan said, “and parents should be given the responsibility of providing children with the basic necessities of life, regardless of their religious beliefs.”

This includes medical care.

Parasidis admits that the current system in many states isn't “perfect,” but he thinks it's better than an outright ban on religious exemptions for medical care.

“The exemption laws are trying to draw a good balance,” Parasidis said. “If doctors really feel strongly about a child's situation and the state child welfare services really feel strongly, then they can go to the court and let the court decide.”

A better approach, he suggests, would be to provide more guidance to hospitals and child welfare services on how to handle religious exemption requests.

Caplan might agree.

“I think it's better handled within the medical profession. It's better when pediatricians, their societies, and ethics committees take positions on this issue,” Caplan said. “I don't see the state legislature being too useful here. They're not very good at practicing medicine, and that's what this is.”

Court cases and legislative options, though, aren't the only approach.

“In my experience, child welfare services are unlikely to prosecute or to bring charges for medical neglect if they can find sort of a softer way to handle it,” Parasidis said.

Caplan says that sometimes doctors can convince parents to allow a conventional medical treatment for their child alongside prayer or alternative medicine.

And even if a court overrules the parents' decisions, he says it's important to maintain a good relationship with the parents.

“You still want to bring parents back in, because they're the main caregivers,” Caplan said. “They're going to be there for the rest of the child's life, but the medical team will not.”

Jefferson City man sentenced in child abuse at mall

A Jefferson City man has been sentenced to 60 days in jail for abusing his young daughter in June 2017 at Capital Mall.

Cole County Presiding Judge Pat Joyce sentenced Bruce Cannady, 23, who was found guilty of second-degree domestic assault and abuse or neglect of a child.

Witnesses said Cannady punched and kicked the girl before driving off with her, according to police reports.

Officers used video of the incident to identify Cannady and eventually located him and the 4-year-old victim at a Jefferson City residence.

Police described the girl's physical injuries from the assault as "obvious but minor." She was taken into protective custody.

EHT woman starts support group for adult survivors of child abuse

Dena Tartaro, of Egg Harbor Township, is leading a new local support group for adult survivors of child abuse. Her own survivorship led her to a career in social work, advocacy and raising her own family.

Dena Tartaro was hoping to find some support among other adult survivors of child abuse in South Jersey, but she found few resources or groups existed.

So she started one herself.

“I had been looking to join a group forever,” she said. “I was part of groups when I lived in other states, and there are some resources down here — but not enough.”

Tartaro will lead a new support group through a program designed by Adult Survivors of Child Abuse, a national organization with groups in several states and counties. She hopes to create a place where people can find comfort in shared experiences and grow in their survivorship.

Nearly 700,000 children are emotionally, physically and sexually abused or neglected in the United States annually, according to the National Children's Alliance. Two-thirds of children served by Children's Advocacy Centers nationwide reported sexual abuse in 2015.

In New Jersey, South Jersey counties had some of the highest rates of reported child abuse in the state. Cumberland County had the highest in 2015, with 97 abuse cases per 1,000 children under age 18, according to data from Advocates for Children of New Jersey.

Alliance data show children are more likely to be abused by a parent or other relative.

Naomi Jones, a doctor of psychology at Jewish Family Service, treats children with cognitive behavioral therapy who have suffered trauma from being neglected, sexually or physically assaulted, and emotionally or psychologically abused.

“Children can lose the sense of trust and safety that is required for healthy development (after trauma),” she said. “They can experience anxiety, depression and self-esteem issues, to name a few of the most common psychological effects.”

Jones said people can recover from childhood trauma and abuse, but may experience some long-term effects as adults that can be triggered by certain changes or stresses as they move through different stages of life.

Although it has been more than 30 years since her father sexually abused her, Tartaro said, she has continually sought therapy and coping resources to heal from the physical, sexual and domestic abuse aimed at her, her sister and her mother.

“We moved around all the time,” she said. “From the outside, we were this upper-class family with two parents and two kids, but in private, nobody knew what was happening.”

The Adult Survivors of Child Abuse support group, which is in partnership with the Mental Health Association in Atlantic County, will meet once a week starting Tuesday in Northfield in a structured format session to cover topics like the role of therapy, confronting abusers, support systems, self-soothing activities, abuse repercussions and more.

One chapter included in the support program focuses on self-blame, which experts say many survivors struggle with. Tartaro said she thankfully had always recognized that her father was in the wrong, not her.

Her father was sentenced in 1997 to two life terms in a Texas prison and died last year. Getting justice for her abuse and knowing he was in prison “made me feel safer to go on with my life,” she said — but she recognized that not all survivors get that closure, or the help they need.

“For those who do not get treatment, people are often anxious, depressed, angry and have high rates of suicidal thoughts and substance abuse,” Jones said.

Tartaro said the support program doesn't replace therapy or counseling, but creates a community for people who have suffered similar abuse. Ideal participants are those who like its structured format and who already have support systems in friends, family or professionals.

The group's members remain confidential and it is strictly for adult abuse survivors. The program is not for professionals without personal experience or abusers, and is free with suggested donations for materials.

Tartaro has since found a career in social work, raised her daughter, gotten remarried to her wife and created a home in New Jersey. She hopes the new support group will fill in some gaps in South Jersey.

“This is for anyone who has been through abuse who doesn't want to feel like they are the only ones,” she said.

My Recommendations For Sex And Relationships Education

We should welcome the publication of the government's draft guidelines for relationships and sex education. I am particularly pleased to see the guidance includes so many of the provisions that I have campaigned for in recent years. The new guidance is grounded in keeping children safe from harm and specifically describes education to recognise grooming, sexual exploitation and domestic abuse. It rightly highlights the key role that schools and teachers have in recognising and responding to abuse.

My research with teachers, children's charities, academics, parents and survivors of childhood abuse, emphatically found that the inclusion of relationships education from primary school age would make the biggest difference to prevent child abuse. Key values such as how to treat others with kindness and what healthy friendships look like are crucial to giving children a firm foundation in life.

Education on how to stay safe online is a crucial step. In the UK the advent of the internet has brought new risks to our children. Children expect to communicate with others on social media from an increasingly early age. I welcome the specific provision for primary school children to learn about online safety, what sharing pictures means and how to critically consider friendships with people they have met online. A 2018 NSPCC report found that one in four children have been contacted by an unknown adult online, we must give them the skills to manage the risk.

I am pleased to see that the guidance is LGBT inclusive. It is vital that all children feel that the new relationships and sex education guidance is relevant to them. There are, however, some areas where the detail on LGBT provision is light. The guidance states that “ schools are free to determine how they address LGBT specific content, but the Department recommends that it is integral throughout”.  Schools should not be able to use this as an opportunity to dilute content. Children in primary schools will be taught to respect families that look different from their own, and it is important that, in practice, this specifically includes children with same-sex parents. The guidance stipulates that there should be “ an opportunity to explore the features of same-sex relationships”.  This is welcome, but schools must also deliver age-appropriate LGBT sex education, and safe sex education must specifically touch on LGBT sex.

There are three important areas of clarity required as the guidance undergoes consultation:

Firstly, the guidance should be used as an opportunity to challenge the gender stereotypes that children experience from a very young age. This is important to allow young people's identities to flourish independently of expectations, and to foster a society more equal and less misogynistic.

Secondly, it is positive that the government have included provision for children to receive sex education three terms before their sixteenth birthday even if it is against the wishes of their parents. However, there are questions about how this works in practice. If a child decides to receive sex education, will their parents be notified? Or will parents be able to find out if their child has received sex education by calling the school? If so, the ‘opt-in' is essentially defunct, as many children will be too fearful about risking their parents' disapproval, even if they feel they need to receive the education. The only way this provision can work is for children to be able to receive sex education confidentially. The Department for Education should commit to undertake a study of how many secondary school pupils, and their parents, are opting out of sex education, in order to understand its effectiveness.

The third area where the new guidance must be clear is on funding for training and resources for teachers and providers of the new sex and relationships education programme. For some, memories of the scant sex education we remember from school is of squirming teachers wrestling with the awkward content, for others, there is nothing to remember at all. For this reason, it is so important that those who are expected to deliver the new provision are able to receive support so that the content is delivered in a relevant, accessible and even entertaining way to young people.

If relationships and sex education is done properly, young people are desperately eager to hear the facts about the things they are talking about in the playground and on social media. That is, for example, when and how to say ‘no'; how to keep private pictures from being shared on social media; how to explore sexual identity in a safe way.

The publication of this updated guidance is a major achievement for all who have campaigned for it. Most importantly, it will support children to have healthier, happier lives. I commend the government on working in such a collaborative way to date, and ask them to continue the spirit of cooperation by adopting my recommendations in full.

Sarah Champion is MP for Rotherham.

Clerics under investigation for abuse may be barred from ministering under new safeguarding rules

Permission to officiate (PTO) will be refused or withdrawn from clerics who are under police investigation over allegations of past child or vulnerable adult abuse, new guidance from the National Safeguarding Team of the Church of England states.

It also states that PTO may be withdrawn or refused by the bishop, even if the investigation of the cleric has concluded, and no conviction made.

“Where a cleric has been the subject of a criminal investigation for offences relating to children and vulnerable adults that did not result in a conviction, again the bishop must consult the diocesan safeguarding advisor and the diocesan registrar before deciding whether to grant PTO.”

Appropriate reasons for withdrawing PTO listed in the document include “following an allegation of abuse in a cleric's past ministry pending the police investigation”.

In addition, PTO must be refused when a cleric has accepted a police caution; an allegation of abuse has been proved in court; or the cleric has been barred from working with children or vulnerable adults.

A spokeswoman for the National Safeguarding Team  told journalists at a press briefing on Friday morning that the new policy, which has been agreed by the House of Bishops, had been “significantly strengthened” compared to that issued in 2014.

Clerics who are “too frail” to administer the eucharist, or considered by the bishop or designated officer to be incapable of continuing their ministry, must also be refused PTO. “It is unlawful for a member of the clergy to officiate (which includes preaching) without the requisite authority,” it states.

The 47-page document has been produced in response to recommendations listed in an independent review by Dame Moira Gibb into the case of Peter Ball, who received a three-year sentence in 2015, having admitted to a series of indecent assaults and the abuse of 18 young men aged 17-25 ( News, 7 October 2015 ).

Ball, who is 86, was released after serving 16 months of his sentence. He was initially investigated by the police in 1993, and accepted a caution, by which he admitted his guilt. He was, however, later granted PTO by Lord Carey, who was the Archbishop of Canterbury at that time.

The Gibb report stated that Lord Carey had failed to respond to repeated expressions of concern and allegations against Ball — most notably those of the late Neil Todd, who was repeatedly abused by the Bishop during the 1980s and '90s, and who later took his own life ( News, 30 June 2017 ).

A week-long hearing conducted by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse (IICSA) on the Ball case is due to start in London on Monday.

Lord Carey, who is due to give evidence on Wednesday, resigned from his position as an honorary assistant bishop in the diocese of Oxford last June, after the Gibb report. His PTO was also withdrawn.

The diocese of Oxford confirmed last week, however, that his PTO had been restored by the Bishop, the Rt Revd Stephen Croft, in February, even though Lord Carey is part of the ongoing IICSA investigation.

The statement from the diocese says: “Lord Carey accepted the criticisms made of him at the time and has apologised to the victims of Peter Ball. In February 2018 Lord Carey contacted the diocese of Oxford to request PTO. This was granted by the Bishop of Oxford later the same month.

“The granting of PTO enabled Lord Carey to preach and preside in the church where he worships, a church where his ministry is much valued. The granting of a PTO does not indicate a planned return to the role of assistant bishop.”

The policy announced on Friday states that PTO must be withdrawn if the cleric fails to comply with the House of Bishops' latest policy on safeguarding children and vulnerable adults.

A spokesman for the National Safeguarding Team confirmed that it had not been contacted by the diocese of Oxford to discuss the renewal of Lord Carey's PTO. “I would have welcomed a consultation,” he said.

A previous IICSA hearing, in March, which used the diocese of Chichester as a case-study to investigate the Anglican Church, heard evidence of failures to suspend or revoke the PTO of known or suspected perpetrators of abuse in the Church, including Roy Cotton, who died in 2006 without any conviction ( News, 12 March 2018 ).

In some cases, such as that of Ball, PTO had been granted or renewed to clergy who had been investigated by the police in relation to child-abuse allegations.

The inquiry also found that records of clerics with current or expired PTO, as well as criminal records, and other concerns kept on file by dioceses, tended to be incomplete, lost, ignored, or blighted by poor record-keeping.

The new guidance states that clerics must now fill out a form to apply for PTO, be subject to safeguarding checks, an entry interview, and an exit interview when transferring PTO to a new diocese. PTO must be reviewed at least once every five years before renewal.

“PTO is not a right,” a spokeswoman for the National Safeguarding Team said. Checks must include DBS, completion of safeguarding training, and issues listed in the “blue files” — under scrutiny by IICSA — which contain sensitive clergy information, including safeguarding concerns. “PTO must never be restricted by attempting to exclude [the applicant from working with] children or vulnerable adults, as all clergy with PTO need to be able to work with children and vulnerable adults.”

Proposals produced by the National Safeguarding Steering Group of the C of E last month requiring all clergy to submit their name and ministerial authority to a national register were approved by the General Synod in York earlier this month ( News, 29 June ). The object is to compile a full list of clerics with PTO, including those whose PTO has been withdrawn, for whatever reason, a spokeswoman said.

A cleric is given leave to minister either through a licence to a specific post or permission to officiate within a specific diocese. The latter is usually granted to retiring clerics to enable them to carry out occasional duties or offices, including during a vacancy. Without PTO, a cleric, as well as not being permitted from officiating, cannot lawfully give mentoring or spiritual direction, conduct retreats, act as an outside consultant, or represent C of E bodies, the guidance states.

It recommends that, if the cleric with PTO is asked to minister more regularly, “agreed statements of expectations” should be drawn up with a granting officer about the “extent and nature” of their assistance.

The timetable for the latest IICSA hearing was released on Thursday. A witness statement from Prince Charles, who was in correspondence with Ball while he was Bishop of Gloucester, will be read out next Friday ( News, 7 June ). He will not be questioned.

In a draft of the statement, seen by The Times on Friday, Prince Charles says that he was aware around the time of the police caution that Ball had been involved in an “indiscretion”, and was told by Ball himself that an individual with a grudge had been “persecuting” the bishop.

“I was certainly not aware at the time of the significance or impact of the caution,” the Prince's statement says. “Whilst I note that Peter Ball mentioned the word in a letter to me in October 2009, I was not aware until recently that a caution in fact carries an acceptance of guilt.”

The timetable also lists the Dean of Southwark, the Very Revd Andrew Nunn, as a witness. Dame Gibb is due to give evidence next Friday. A spokesman for the National Safeguarding Team said that it had written to survivors of Peter Ball, in the UK and abroad, to make them aware of the hearing next week and to offer support. The team would be in “listening mode”, he said.

Data breach. IICSA is to be fined £200,000 by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) for a serious data breach which led to the exposure of anonymous victims of abuse, it was reported on Thursday.

An email sent to members of a victims' forum listed 90 addresses in the “to” field instead of the “Bcc” field, meaning that the recipients could see who else the email had been sent to. More than 50 of the email addresses listed contained the full names of the participants or had a full name label attached, the ICO report states.

IICSA said in a statement: “The inquiry takes its data protection obligations very seriously and we have apologised to those affected by the data breach.”

Historic abuse at Sherborne Prep: Newly released reports from 1990s detail further allegations of sexual abuse and assault at school

Documents record allegations of assault, claims of conspiracy and chaotic running of the school

Documents from the 1990s about Sherborne Preparatory School and its former headmaster Robin Lindsay have been released following a Freedom of Information request by Somerset Live.

The papers include witness statements used in a tribunal against Lindsay - who was later branded a fixated paedophile and banned from teaching.

There are 81 pages of statements about the headteacher, which document his inappropriate interest in the boys in his care, and include a disturbing allegation of sexual assault against him.

Also included in the bundle is the 1997 inspection report by Dorset County Council's social services team - a 47-page document which prompted legal proceedings against him; notice of his appeal against his ban from teaching and details of a complaint put in by Lindsay after he was forced out of teaching.

The documents in detail

Witness statements include a disturbing account of sexual abuse of a pupil.

Robin Lindsay 'retired' from the school in 1998, in the wake of a Department for Education tribunal that saw him branded a "fixated paedophile" who posed a serious risk to children.

Lindsay, who died in 2016, never faced police charges.

What happened?

Head teacher and owner of the school Robin Lindsay was accused of committing a serious sexual assault against one pupil of the school, encouraged children to share his bed and joining them naked in the showers.

Police had investigated him in April 1986, but he claimed the accusations against him had been made maliciously.

When investigated again in 1993, he admitted a string of allegations and accepted his physical intimacy with pupils was open to misinterpretation.

Dorset Social Services had also warned Lindsay about his behaviour in 1993, while their follow-up report in 1997 was 'damning in the extreme'.

It was not until 1998, when concerns over his behaviour became so extreme that the Department for Education held a tribunal and barred him from teaching.

As a result he retired from the school, saying he wanted to concentrate on clearing his name.

Despite the tribunal finding him unfit to run a school and branding him a 'fixated paedophile' and 'serious risk to children' parents of pupils at the school rallied to his defense.

They wrote to newspapers covering the story in their hundreds, with one claiming: "his only fault is to have a little of the eccentricity that we British are famed for."

When he was ousted from the school at a service in Sherborne Abbey 700 people sang 'For He's a Jolly Good Fellow' and gave him a standing ovation.

Lindsay never faced police charges, and died in July 2016.

The newly revealed witness statements record:

• Staff raising concerns about Lindsay's inappropriate interest in young boys
  
• That Lindsay would invite them into his bed, and give them sleeping pills if they could not sleep
  
• The 'chaotic' day-to-day running of the school
  
• Lindsay would give higher marks to his 'favourite' pupils
  
• A boy at the school made allegations of being attacked by pupils at the school, then forced to relive the attack for Lindsay, who then spanked him.

The questions Dorset County Council refused to answer

We invited Rebecca Knox, leader of Dorset County Council, to say if she believed the council had done enough to help and protect the children who were at Sherborne Preparatory School during Lindsay's reign.

She did not respond to us directly but the council's press office did get in touch, to offer a no-comment statement.

Here's the questions they refused to respond to:

• How do you feel about Dorset County Council's role in what is said to have happened in the school?
  
• Can you explain why the second report has gone missing or been destroyed?
  
• Why was Lindsay was able to continue in his role as headmaster at the school given the extraordinary allegations against him in the '93 report?
  
• Why didn't social services not go back into the school to find out if there had been any progress on the recommendations in the report?
  
• Do you support calls for an inquiry into the case, as made by Sherborne's MP and former pupils at the school?

The draft Dorset County Council Social Services Report from 1997 into conditions at the school reveals:

• Lax staffing arrangements
  
• Pupils' concerns about the headmaster's behaviour towards them
  
• Staff and pupils at the school were pressurised by Lindsay not to co-operate with school inspector
  
• Lindsay was 'obsessed' with the development of pupils and their physical appearance, including pubic hair and genital size
  
• He continued to supervise the boys showering and would run his hands up their legs
  
• He invited pupils who could not sleep into his bed and routinely gave them sleeping pills - something he called 'sleep treatment'.
  
• Badly behaved pupils and a culture of bullying

The Notice of Complaint

Dated May '98, this document notifies Lindsay that the Secretary of State for Education and Employment believe he is not a 'proper person to be proprieter of an independent school, or teacher or employee in any school.

It says he has failed in his duty to safeguard the welfare of children in his care.

It outlines the complaints against him, including:

• Engaging in behaviour of an inappropriate nature, including supervising the boys showering, sleeping in the boarding house, inappropriate physical contact with boys, possession of photos of young boys in swimming costumes, possession of condoms and accusations of sexual assault.
  
• Lindsay had refused to take action recommended in previous inspection reports
  
• Manifesting an uncooperative and hostile attitude towards public authorities and attempted to undermine inspections.
  
• Inadequate and confused management of the school
  
• Irregular discipline
  
• Unequal and unfair treatment of pupils
  
• Excess consumption of alcohol, dubious personal hygiene and appearance

Lindsay's Appeal

Dated June 3, 1998 Lindsay lodged a notice of appeal against the complaint - which he later dropped.

In it, he outlines the basis of his appeal, claiming:

• Denying the accusations and complaints against him
  
• He was planning to transfer the management and control of the school to a governing body
  
• The school's academic achievements were not called into question
  
• His overriding consideration was for the welfare of the school and its pupils
  
• He had not been interviewed by any official on behalf of the Secretary of State prior to the complaint being issued.

Despite Lindsay withdrawing his appeal, it went ahead in his absence and found against him.

Complaint upheld

Dated January '99, this document from the Independent Schools Tribunal explains why the complaint against Lindsay was upheld.

It noted that Lindsay had claimed he had been treated unfairly in proceedings and had been unable to put his case across - something the findings describe as 'not correct'.

The findings include:

• He failed to implement the changes recommended by Dorset Social Services and Ofsted
  
• He was uncooperative and hostile to public authorities
  
• Lindsay enjoyed a substantial level of support from parents of pupils at the school
  
• The school's academic prowess was an effective smokescreen to divert attention from serious abuse being perpetrated against some pupils.
  
• Parents convinced themselves that Lindsay was the victim of some kind of conspiracy on the part of authorities
  
• The police, OFSTED and the Department of Social acted fairly throughout their investigations.
  
• Experts had concluded Lindsay represented a 'serious risk to children' and was a 'fixated paedophile'
  
• The tribunal was concerned that IAPS, who had made findings and recommendations as long ago as 1985 had taken no action against Lindsday.
  
• The findings note: "The parents did not have the same authority of opportunity to talk at length with other pupils or members of staff. They did not have access to evidence and did not have access to evidence to reach considered and informed judgements. Furthermore, in many cases, they did not want to look too closely."
  
• The school was achieving the academic success the parents were looking for and a number of them were enjoying substantial reductions in fees.

Finding help

If you or someone you know is a survivor of abuse or violence, help is available from the following organisations:

• Help for Adult Victims of Child Abuse (HAVOCA) offers online support.
  
• The Survivors Trust or call 01788 550554
  
• Victim Support or call 0808 1689 111
  
• NSPCC general helpline or call 0808 800 5000 or email help@nspcc.org.uk.
  
• Childline is for young people who are experiencing abuse. You can call them on 0800 1111.
  
• The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (NAPAC) is the UK's leading national charity offering support to adult survivors of all types of childhood abuse. They offer a series of six booklets to help survivors of child abuse. You can find them here: https://napac.org.uk/resources/

A tale of two selves

by Shain Germaner

Three years ago, Jennifer Fox would have been “scared to death” to release her newest film, The Tale. An unflinching look at her own childhood abuse and the complexity of her relationship with the perpetrators, Fox's film has received widespread international acclaim. It will be screened in South Africa in the next few weeks.

“The film was being made long before the #MeToo movement and frankly, I was scared to death that a film this explicit - on purpose - (that) the press would tear it apart, unless there was someone to stand up - me - and say, it really happened.”

Fox's autobiographical film is not afraid to showcase the less talked about perspectives in the child abuse narrative, and she knew that its intentions would only be understood if she attached her name, personality and career to its main character.

“The only way to protect the story and film coming out was to say: ‘This is really true and if you have any questions, come to me'.”

The Tale follows Fox (played by Laura Dern), whose mother discovers an essay Fox had written as a 13-year-old, describing her first romantic relationship involving two adults. As the film oscillates between present day and 1973, Fox struggles to come to terms with the conflicting emotions she felt towards the man and woman who had groomed her into sexual awareness, how in adulthood she had created a positive narrative on what took place, and her eventual realisation that she was physically abused.

Fox, primarily a documentary film-maker, uses one-on-one interviews that in reality weren't possible to show not only her childhood perspective on the relationship, but that of her abusers. Much of the film is based on Fox's own investigation conducted 35 years after the incident, where she managed to track down the two perpetrators, yet was unable to get the answers she was hoping for.

“I ran into problems writing the script about the two perpetrators (given the pseudonyms Mrs G and Bill). I was hoping if I found them and met them, they would give me some answers I met Mrs G many times, I spoke to the real Bill several times on the phone. I realised they would never tell me why they did what they did or what was happening in their minds.

“I had to make it up based on bits of information I had. The only thing I could do was fantasise What grown man is interested in a little girl who looks like she's a nine-year-old boy? That was always my question. I knew he and she would never answer.”

At the core of The Tale's story is Fox's realisation she had lived most of her adult life looking back fondly on the manipulative relationship in which she was embroiled, and the conflict between her past and current self.

“The child's perception is also true. He did love me, I did feel love. I did feel important. It's just not the only narrative. As an adult you can actually hold the ambivalence and complexity. It is true that I felt loved, and it is true that I was manipulated and abused. Both things are true.”

But Fox never opened up a criminal case against her abusers, not only because of the US's statute of limitations on such prosecutions, but also because she felt she would have “collapsed” if she had to fight such a case as a teenager.

She recognises that this is why it is so difficult for young people to speak out about sexual abuse.

“I'm just one person with one story. But when I first used the word ‘child sexual abuse' on myself was when I was filming (another of Fox's documentary projects) Flying: Confessions of a Free Woman. One of the turning points for me was meeting my friends in South Africa.

“Again, they're from different countries, different colours, different backgrounds, and here we all had this same story. It had this paradigm. Their sexual abuse looked like my sexual abuse. So I realised that's what happened to me.”

Following this realisation, Fox said she knew why she hadn't been able to come forward earlier.

“Being a victim at 13 would have killed me more than the event itself. So what do I mean? Of course, I was a victim in reality. I was a victim of adult coercion and manipulation. No two ways about it. But conceptually as a 13-year-old if I had accepted victimhood, I would have collapsed and been destroyed. By not accepting this, saying I chose this and ‘I'm the hero' I was able to construct an identity of strength and power and use the attention they gave me to feel better about myself.

“It's so complex. I don't want to suggest that people shouldn't come forward (about abuse), and maybe me not realising it was sexual abuse may have hurt other children. Because who knows who else he might have abused? In my denial, he had years and years to do whatever he wanted I'm really sad that my denial could have allowed him to hurt other children. I did the only thing I could do at that age, but I'm not condoning that either.”

The film also captures Fox's belief that the abuse ultimately shaped her adult personality, that it gave her a resilience that she otherwise may not have had.

With a positive critical and media response so far, one has to ask if the film's release has been a cathartic experience.

“I've never been involved in a project that didn't help me grow and face things and understand the world. I'm incredibly blessed, privileged that I get to do this work. And even though this is a memoir and personal work, I'm growing through it I have got new insight into these events in my life, and it will continue until I die. It's not like now I'm healed and its over. I will be grappling with this trauma and other traumas in my life my whole life.”

But the reaction at screenings has shown Fox that there are many other survivors of childhood abuse, who resonate with the messages.

“Every time we show the film, I hear a slew of stories from other people Every time I read (or hear) another story, that changes me.

“Memory and trauma and abuse are very complex stories in our lives and I think we all could learn and grow by seeing the complexity and nuance, and ask how do we deal with the ambivalence?”

As the writer and documentarian, she hopes her film can be used as a tool to open up dialogue about child abuse, and historical abuse. The movie's website (thetalemovie.- com) has information on how to access free screenings, as well as contact numbers for abuse hotlines worldwide and guides on facilitating conversations around the movie.

The film is set to debut at the Durban International Film Festival next Saturday and will be released on M-Net movies Premiere (channel 104) at 10pm on August 6, as part of Women's Month.

lIt was announced on Thursday that the film was nominated for two Emmy awards for outstanding lead actress in a limited TV series and for outstanding TV movie.

When is the right time to start talking to children about sexual abuse?

Age-appropriate communication with children about child sexual abuse is among one of the key protective measures that adults can undertake.

The implications of not giving age-appropriate information and transferring skills to children can be very damaging.

Silence on this issue can perpetuate further abuse, and leave children suffering over long periods of time for something that can be stopped with timely intervention.

Having worked in Pakistan with both child and adult survivors of sexual abuse, I observed that individuals who were provided basic body protection information as children or timely support by adults after an incident reported fewer clinical complications than those who disclosed abuse for the first time during therapy.

An oft-asked question is about when, what and how to broach this subject with children so that they are not left feeling scared and overwhelmed.

What is the right age to start the conversation?

Having conducted awareness sessions with children of all ages, I found that the more comfortable, open and engaging an adult was, the more comfortable a child became in speaking and openly asking questions.

Children as young as three years old can learn basic age-appropriate information and skills. The right information about body safety and the opportunity to practice skills for dealing with potentially abusive situations are two important aspects of an effective awareness programme for children.

Children aged 3 to 5 years need to learn the basics, i.e. the difference between a good, bad and secret touch; the role of feelings in determining this difference; what to do and most importantly which adult to tell.

Confidently saying ‘no', shouting out for help, talking to a trusted adult are some of the skills practiced with children.

Stories through books, puppets and cartoons can further reinforce this information.

For children aged 5 to 7 years , basic information about bodily rights, private parts, difference between safe and unsafe situations, assertive communication skills and practice of skills through role-plays should be additionally covered.

An important thing taught to children is to identify more than one person who they can talk to, just in case an adult is unavailable or is unable to believe them. This helps build a support network for children.

Since anyone can be an abuser, with most being someone that the child knows, the emphasis of information should be on the abuse itself, regardless of who the person is.

For children older than 7 years, some myths should be clarified. For example, children should know that abusers are rarely strangers or that boys can also be sexually abused, or that abusers do not always physically threaten children but lure through affection and gifts.

What kind of information should be shared?

Various forms of abuse including vulnerability through cyberspace should be shared with children. Teenagers, for example, should be provided additional information about consent and respect in relationships.

Children with special needs should not be left out of these discussions, since evidence indicates them being more vulnerable to sexual abuse.

Being vigilant and aware of the adults around the child and their nature of interaction with them can be a helpful and protective measure, especially for those with mental disabilities.

Most importantly, no matter what the age, children need to be clearly and repeatedly told that the fault for the abuse does not lie with them, even if they have accepted gifts, enjoyed the abuser's company, or could not say ‘no', etc.

Building children's overall self-esteem, providing them opportunities to express their opinions and think critically can be considered as important foundations for the work on body protection for both girls and boys.

The importance of two-way communication

Providing information through open, two-way communication that allows children to share their views and feelings about the issue is extremely critical. This allows adults to find out what children already know and what needs to be clarified.

When adults give this information in the form of a lecture, or in a manner where children sense that the onus of responsibility for preventing abuse lies on them, there are more chances that they will not disclose such incidents.

Adults may not always be around and children may not always be able to speak to adults due to feelings of shame, fear, helplessness, and their relationship with the abuser.

Always try and take out time to talk to children about their day-to-day activities, their feelings, their challenges and achievements.

This can further create an overall atmosphere of trust and confidence enabling them to talk about difficult issues.

How to identify signs of sexual abuse in children

There is no single indicator of sexual abuse, since abuse can be of many different forms and may affect children differently.

However, any sudden change in a child's behaviour, academic performance, sleep, appetite or emotions, for which no other reason can be found, should alert an adult to the possibility of sexual abuse.

In addition, age-inappropriate sexual information, sexual acting-out with peers, toys, adults, and inexplicable bruises or marks on the body should also be investigated.

Adults often feel anger, guilt and helplessness at a child's disclosure of abuse. Blaming the child, scolding her for not revealing the issue earlier or asking her to not discuss or forget about it are unhelpful and detrimental responses.

Sensitive and effective ways to respond to a child's disclosure of the abuse include listening openly, appreciating and not blaming the child, and normalising the feelings evoked by abuse.

Necessary steps for ensuring the child's safety should also be taken. For example, helping him develop a safety plan in case he comes across the same situation, confronting or reporting the abuser, and blocking access of the abuser.

This becomes complicated when the abuser is related to the child. However, calling out on the abuse and taking safety measures are essential.

If critical thinking, values, self-confidence and life skills are essential for children's personality, then bodily safety and protection should be seen as part and parcel of that development.

While the need for effective laws, sensitive reporting and response mechanisms in Pakistan cannot be denied, it would be negligent not to do our bit by empowering children through basic safety and protective measures.

Sexual abuse has long term effects on young survivors

by Gloria Ogunbadejo

Over the past few years, there have been numerous stories, articles, revelations of rapes, and other sexual abuses on young girls. It was beginning to feel uncomfortably and perversely as if it had become fashionable and somehow we were getting accustomed to hearing or reading about it.  I have written about this topic a few times but I feel it is a topic that needs to be addressed on a regular basis because it continues to happen on a regular basis and people need to be aware of the impact it has on the victims. I am convinced people don't really understand the totality of losses involved in the savagery of the act. A survivor's emotions, behaviour, sexuality, attitudes and spirituality are all damaged.

For many of the clients I see, sometimes the aftermath of their experiences is their reason for seeking therapy even though their presenting problem may be quite different. What has led me to revisit this serious topic is a letter I received from a reader recently and one I received some time ago.

Dear aunty Gloria,

I am an avid reader of your column which I have been attached to for the past four years or more. I read the Bible every day and I read your column every Sunday! I am in my forties. I have been through two marriages and several relationships that have all collapsed. I have always thought I just was not one of those people who had the luck of sustaining a successful union. After my last relationship ended, I decided I had had enough and I was not going to attempt to have any further relationships. I am well educated and relatively successful professionally. I would consider myself a catch for any man but I could never keep one.

The most incredible thing happened to me a short while ago reading one of your articles. I suddenly recalled two of my uncles and a nephew sexually abusing me from the ages of 12 to 14. I was horrified at the memory. I thought I had imagined it and it was just a waking nightmare. Once the thoughts came into my mind, I remembered many of the things that happened around that time. I decided to verify the memory by asking family members about the relatives and the things I remembered of the things going on at the time. Everything was confirmed.  I could not believe that nothing was done to support me and to punish the relatives. I was angry that I started drinking to get rid of the thoughts and to deal with the anger.

I started to understand why I have been unable to feel trust or safe with any man. I have problems with all relationships. Even with female friends, I just cannot trust anyone. I went through a period with my husbands where I was physically unable to enjoy intimacy. I would just go through the actions like a robot and it affected all my relationships with men. I just thought I was one of those women who didn't enjoy sex.

The more I read your articles, the more I understood more about myself and when I travelled abroad for three months I decided to get professional help. I went to see a therapist and I made a break through. I have returned home now and I reading your column I was thinking that the issue of child sex abuse is quite rampant in our country and we don't really pay enough attention to it. I think the work you are doing in your column is fantastic and I would be honoured to meet you.

— Name withheld

~~~~

Dear ma,

I want you to share my story with your readers but please don't use my name and contact details. I trust you and you have helped me a lot with your articles so I feel maybe someone might find my story helpful.

I am now 57 years old, married with five children. My husband is a God-fearing man and has been a good husband and father. Sadly our marriage was doomed from the beginning. The fact that I have five children will probably make people thing we have a healthy sex life. This is far from the truth. I can say for each pregnancy it was close to a rape situation because I have never had sex willingly with my husband.

I was sexually abused by my grandfather when I was eight and it continued for five years.  I am sure the family knew because I used to hear them talk about him and what they needed to do to stop him from his sinful ways. I was always afraid to report because I did not feel I would be believed or they would send me away. But I felt my mum knew from the way she used to look at me. I grew up very angry and unable to trust men, and I hated being touched by anybody especially men. I never had a chance to enjoy sex so I grew up avoiding it and associating it with pain and disgust.

— Olayinka (not real name)

The survivors of sexual abuse have borne many losses. Some may be more obvious than others. Many report feeling ‘different' from other people as if the abusive relationship sets them apart from others. Right from the beginning of the abuse, the victim undergoes a crisis of identity and an ultimate loss of a sense of being normal or like everybody else. Another obvious loss is the loss of innocence. Survivors of sexual abuse are caught in a very complex and bewildering situation where they are trying to cope with adult experiences and feelings but only having the resources of childhood. They are not actually catapulted into true adulthood as may be thought, with its mature understandings and motivations. Instead, survivors of sexual abuse are caught in a no man's land where they are confronted with events that they are not equipped to deal with.

The loss of innocence in childhood sexual abuse is physical as well as emotional and has repercussions at every level. Survivors tend to believe that there is something fundamentally wrong with them for anyone to have treated them in that way. Sometimes this belief is deeply buried and may resurface in self-destructive behaviours such as eating disorders, drugs and alcohol abuse. Others may engage in promiscuity, become suicidal, or may find huge difficulties in maintaining healthy relationships. What is clear is the devastation sexual abuse causes to every aspect of a person's attitude and life.

One way in which our psyche protects us is by repressing or denying truths or events which it would be unbearable to acknowledge. If in the right environment, feeling safe and contained, maybe with a counsellor or a trusted person, tiny fragments of memories of abuse might begin to surface.

Most people will assume that the victim's strongest feelings of betrayal and exploitation would be towards the perpetrator. However from what the majority of my clients say, the strongest sense of outrage is directed towards the mother. Whether the mother is seen as having a direct part to play in the abuse or of turning a blind eye or remaining ignorant, survivors feel  the mother had failed at performing her vital role of  creating and maintaining a secure environment for her child. Obviously in the cases where the mother is the perpetrator, the effect on the victim is almost overwhelming.

For some survivors of sexual abuse, loss is a continuing experience. Though sexual abuse is generally thought of as something occurring in infancy or childhood, it is a perfectly valid term for unwanted sexual contact at any age. Victims of rape, sexual harassment in the work place, or sexual brutality within marriage could all be described as having been sexually abused. Their self-esteem usually deteriorates, and they feel sullied. Rape victims sometimes develop fears such as going out alone, and women abused by their partners can find satisfying, loving relationships hard to achieve or sustain. All these have their parallels in childhood sexual abuse.

The impact and ramifications on survivors of childhood sexual abuse vary, particularly because of the age at which the abuse occurs. The sense of powerlessness and of intimidation or menace, while quite real for an adult victim of rape, loom even larger for a child, who has far fewer resources and coping strategies.

It is useful for family members or those around survivors of sexual abuse to bear in mind common psychological processes such as transference (Where a person transfers an emotion meant for one person on to another). It is also important not to minimise the awfulness of sexual abuse, or to turn away from survivors or to try to deny how they are feeling. It is important that they feel able to express how they feel and for them to be validated.  If you have a similar story you can share, I invite you to send in your letters in confidence and also welcome any comments to the readers' stories.

Hundreds of survivors of Nassar's sexual abuse accept the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the ESPN ESPYs

The moment was powerful: hundreds of survivors of ex-MSU and USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar's sexual abuse stepping on stage in solidarity to receive the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the ESPN ESPYs.

Photos of survivors were projected in the background and those on stage were holding hands while accepting the Arthur Ashe Courage Award.

Survivors Sarah Klein, Tiffany Thomas Lopez and Aly Raisman spoke while accepting the award at last night's ESPYs.

Here is what they said.

Sarah Klein

“It is a privilege to stand up here with my sister survivors, as we represent hundreds more who are not with us tonight. Make no mistake, we are here on this stage to present an image for the world to see: a portrait of survival. A new vision of courage.

“The abuse of Larry Nassar began 30 years ago with me. For 30 years, people at the United States Olympic Committee, USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University all placed money and medals above the safety of child athletes. 30 years until the work of Detective Lieutenant Andrea Mumford of the Michigan State Police Department and Angela Povilaitis, the assistant attorney general who prosecuted the case, finally putting our abuser away for life.

“Speaking up and speaking out is not easy. Telling our stories of abuse over, and over and over again in graphic detail is not easy. We're sacrificing privacy. We're being judged and scrutinized, and it's greuling, and it's painful, but it is time. As a mother, I am here to say that we must start caring about children's' safety more than we care about adults' reputations. And, as a survivor, I am here to say that, if we can just give one person the courage to use their voice, this is worth it. If one more victim of sexual abuse feels less alone tonight, then our suffering has meaning.”

Tiffany Thomas Lopez

“In my sport, softball, we typically measure ourselves by wins and losses. Well, the amount of loss that we've endured over the years is almost immeasurable, but tonight we stand here and it feels like we're finally winning.

“There are a lot of conversations in our society that we tiptoe around, as if there's something to avoid. I know in my life, I've seen people look that way at two issues extremely personal to me: race and sexual abuse. Sexual abuse claims victims in every race, showing no discrimination. Just like Arthur Ashe, I stand so very proud, representing not only minorities, but all of us as humans. The human race. 

“I encourage those suffering to hold tight to you faith and stand tall when speaking your truth because I'm here to tell you that you cannot silence the strong forever.”

Aly Raisman

“1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2004, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016. These were the years we spoke up about Larry Nassar's abuse. All those years, we were told ‘you are wrong,' ‘you misunderstood,' ‘he's a doctor,' ‘it's okay,' ‘don't worry, we've got it covered,' ‘be careful, there are risks involved.' The intention: to silence us in favor of money, medals and reputation. But we persisted and, finally, someone listened and believed us. 

“This past January, Judge Rosemarie Aquilina showed a profound level of understanding by giving us each the opportunity to face our abuser, to speak our truth and to feel heard. Thank you, Judge Aquilina for honoring our voices. 

“For too long, we were ignored and you helped us rediscover the power we each possess. You may never meet the hundreds of children you saved, but know they exist. The ripple effect of our actions, or inactions, can be enormous, spanning generations. Perhaps the greatest tragedy of this nightmare is that it could have been avoided. Predators thrive in silence. It is all too common for people to choose to not get involved. Whether you act or do nothing, you are shaping the world that we live in, impacting others. All we needed was one adult to have the integrity to stand between us and Larry Nassar. If just one adult had listened, believed and acted, the people standing before you on this stage would have never met him. 

“Too often, abusers and enablers perpetuate suffering by making survivors feel that their truth doesn't matter. To all the survivors out there, don't let anyone rewrite your story. Your truth does matter, you matter and you are not alone. We all face hardships. If we choose to listen and we choose to act with empathy, we can draw strength from each other. We may suffer alone, but we survive together. Thank you.”