The prevalence of child abuse in today's society can be attributed to people's irresponsible attitudes toward romantic relationships nowadays, Vice President Annette Lu (
Lu made the remark during a roundtable seminar on the topic of children's welfare held by the Presidential Office's Human Rights Advisory Committee yesterday as part of Children's Day activities.
Although sexual liberation has received a lot of attention in the wake of the feminist movement, sexual morality has not been reconstructed, the vice president said.
"As a result, there has been excessive indulgence in lust, lechery and sensual pleasure, as well as irresponsibility ... which has led to the high levels of child abuse," said Lu, adding that Taiwan's divorce rate is also ranked the highest in Asia.
According to statistics cited by the vice president, a total of 1,638 cases of child abuse were reported in 1994, but last year this figure had grown to 5,341.
Lu said studies suggest that parents are responsible for more than 80 percent of child-abuse cases.
She added that the number of abuse cases had grown despite the promulgation of legislation such as the Children's Welfare Law (
"All in all, it suggests just how complicated the issue is," the vice president said.
She said that the current debate on how to help abused children was tantamount to "starting a fire and then talking about how to put it out, without paying much attention to how it could have been prevented in the first place."
"The origin of life is loving intercourse, but nowadays our society has too much sex without love, too much lust and no affection, which results in innocent children being abused," Lu said.
"There is no way to resolve the issue without addressing the issue of romantic relationships from the most basic level," she said.
She called on the public to take the issue to heart and work together with the government to help eradicate the problem for future generations.
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