About 35 percent of people do not see corporal punishment as a form of child abuse, a Taiwan Fund for Children and Families survey released yesterday showed.
About 89 percent of respondents said they agreed that “saying negative things to children, such as: ‘You are stupid’ or ‘I should not have had you’” is a form of abuse, while 11 percent disagreed.
While the vast majority — 97.8 percent — of respondents agreed that children younger than six must not be left alone at home, 2.2 percent considered it acceptable, the survey found.
Photo: CNA
Article 51 of the Protection of Children and Youth Welfare and Rights Act (兒童及少年福利與權益保障法) says that “parents, guardians, or other people looking after children and youth shall not leave children aged below six or children and youth that need special care alone or allow them to be looked after by incompetent people.”
The act stipulates a fine of NT$3,000 to NT$15,000 or four to 50 hours of “parenting education guidance” for contravening the provision.
The survey was conducted online from Feb. 3 to 17, collecting 1,663 valid responses from people aged 19 and older, and has a confidence level of 95 percent.
Prolonged verbal criticism of children could hurt their self-image and self-confidence, and has effects that last a lifetime, fund CEO Betty Ho (何素秋) told a news conference in Taipei to announce the results of the survey.
Parents should interact and communicate more with their children, she said.
Hitting or scolding children could teach them to use violence to handle their relationships, or to use the same methods on their own children later in life, she added.
Former Democratic Progressive Party legislator Lee Li-feng (李麗芬) called for a clearer legal definition of child abuse, saying that it could help parents become better caregivers.
She urged people to pay attention to the children in their lives or in their communities.
Most often, it is the parents who are the abusers, Lee said.
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