The Taiwan Fund for Children and Families on Wednesday called for greater awareness of child abuse as it presented the results of a study on teenagers’ perception of abuse.
The survey showed that 66.4 percent of respondents between 12 and 18 years said that they would worry that seeking help after being physically punished by a person who has authority over them would put those they seek help from at risk.
It also showed that 48.4 percent said that they would forgive a person if they apologized after physically punishing them.
Last year, parents — including foster parents — committed 47.1 percent of all recorded child abuses in the nation, the Fund said, citing Ministry of Health and Welfare data.
The data showed that 2.8 percent of abusers were grandparents, 3.3 percent were other relatives, 0.6 percent were teachers and 0.2 percent were babysitters, the fund said.
Being routinely physically punished might affect a child’s emotional development and cause trauma, even if the abuser apologizes, the fund said.
Children who tend to apologize to their abusers or forgive their abusers might be in need of attention from other people to whom they are emotionally close, it said, adding that people who find out about the abuse of a child should report the case.
Neither the abuser, the victim, nor bystanders should simply say “sorry” in situations where a child’s safety is at risk, the fund said.
Fund chief executive officer Betty Ho (何素秋) said that it is upsetting to see the number of child abuse cases rising even while Taiwan’s birthrate is declining.
Child protection must be taken seriously, she said, adding that the fund has since 2013 marked “child protection day” every year on April 28.
The fund has invited celebrities to decorate medical masks with the slogan “No More Sorry,” which is this year’s theme for child protection day, Ho said, adding that it has also created filters for Facebook and Instagram bearing the slogan.
This was part of a fundraising campaign for its “Kids First” program, which serves children who have been victims of abuse, the fund said.
The survey was conducted through an online questionnaire from March 3 to March 19, it said.
The survey received 6,492 valid responses and has a margin of error of 1.09 percentage points.
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