Most child abusers known to victims – Shahrizat

PETALING JAYA: The overwhelming majority of child abusers are known to the victims, and they include parents and guardians, the Minister of Women, Family and Community Development, Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, said yesterday.

She added that statistics for January to August this year show 1,680 cases of child abuse by people known to the victims — parents (808), siblings (23), relatives (322), boy friends of mothers (270), neighbours (26) and others (231).

During the same period, 110 cases by people not known to the victims were reported, Shahrizat said when launching celebrations of World Children’s Day here with the theme ‘The safety of children is in our hands: Everyone take charge!’ she said that child abuse cases had been increasing from 2,279 in 2007 to 2,780 in 2008 and 2789 in 2009.

Shahrizat said the data indicated that an environment is no longer safe for children where people who are supposed to protect them are among their biggest abusers.

Shahrizat said the government had formulated the Children Protection Policy and the Children National Policy, supported by the Children Act 2001. But the objective of protecting children cannot be achieved without the commitment of everyone, she added.

In conjunction with World Children’s Day, her ministry has started a Childline for children with problems.

Childline shares the number 15999 with Nur Line, created earlier to enable timely intervention to stop child abuse and domestic violence.

Malaysia is one of 130 countries with such a line, created with the cooperation of Childline Malaysia and 20 non-governmental organisations and private companies.

The theme for the launch of the Childline is ‘The safety of children is in our hands: We are all responsible’. — Bernama