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LONDON -- Sex abuses on children has been a problem haunting many countries around the world, and in Britain the issue has been of major concern for some decades.
Andy Baker, the deputy chief executive of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Center (CEOP), a government-backed body in Britain, told Xinhua that breaking down any taboos around talking about child abuse was a key step to beginning to come to terms with it.
"We have matured in how we acknowledge, listen, hear and deal with victims of child sexual abuse," said Baker.
He added, "It used to be a taboo subject and we have taken that away; we are quite happy now to talk about child sexual abuse openly, certainly adult to adult. For instance at dinner parties people openly talk about this; before you steered away from this."
This was an important breakthrough, said Baker, because it gave adults confidence to talk to children about it.
"Getting children to talk is really important," said Baker.
"The key thing is getting children to talk openly," he added.
High-profile cases have continued to keep the issue in the public eye.
HIGH-PROFILE CASES
The revelations of the long-term child sex abuse of TV and radio celebrity Jimmy Savile during his 50-year career at the BBC made headlines not just in Britain but across the world and have led to a series of allegations against other TV celebrities.
One of those, former BBC sports and news celebrity Stuart Hall, pleaded guilty to historical child abuse charges earlier this year.
Savile and Hall used their powerful public images as a means of hunting down their victims for sexual abuse and then of keeping them quiet afterwards.
The BBC is separately investigating Hall and Savile's abuses throughout their long BBC careers, which in both cases stretch back 50 years.
The revelations about Savile and Hall show a changed attitude in British society towards abuse and abusers.
Another example of the changed attitudes over the past 30 years are historical allegations which have surfaced after the conviction of a former music teacher at one of the most prestigious classical music schools in Britain, Chetham's School in Manchester, of sexually abusing his pupils.
Michael Brewer was the former director of music at Chethams, where fees are now up to 30,000 pounds (46,000 U.S. dollars) a year.
He was convicted in March of sexually abusing a pupil at the school over 30 years ago, and sentenced to six years' jail. He was also stripped of an award given to him for services to music by the Queen.
The woman who had been abused by Brewer committed suicide during the trial, after giving evidence.
Brewer had been allowed to quit his job at Chethams in 1994 after it was revealed that he was having an affair with a pupil who was over 16. It was not revealed at the time that he was having the affair and that it was the reason for his departure.
Brewer's affair with a 16-year-old pupil was legal at the time, but laws passed in 2003 now mean this is illegal.
SCHOOLS ATTRACT PAEDOPHILES
Schools can attract paedophiles, who may join the staff or target the institution.
"It is an obvious thing to say but paedophiles go to where the children are," said Baker.
Britain set up a system in 2002 after public concern over child safety whereby every adult who worked with children had to be checked against records held by the police for convictions.
The system is now called the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).
These DBS checks had not been possible before because Britain's police are regionalized and each kept its own records.
However, the move did not prevent the 2002 murder of two 10 year old girls by a school caretaker, Ian Huntley.
Huntley knew the girls, and tricked them into entering his house and then abused and murdered them.
Huntley had been appointed caretaker before the DBS checks had come into force, and his only previous convictions had not been connected with sex offending. He had, however, been suspected of rape and child abuse but never convicted.
In addition, Britain set up a Sex Offenders Register in 2003, and every person convicted of a sex offence has to be on it, sometimes for long periods. If they move to an area, leave an area, or go abroad they have to tell the authorities.
Enrolment on the register is in addition to sentences handed down by the courts, and is a way for the authorities to keep track of sex offenders, including convicted paedophiles.
Baker said that because of the risk of vigilante action against sex offenders, the register had to be organized by the relevant authorities and access given only to those authorities who needed to know, such as law enforcement.
CEOP itself is a government response to the dangers children face, both in the real world and in the virtual world online.
"Children are as unsafe in their bedroom as they are walking across the road," said Baker.
Parents needed to guide their children's use of the Internet, said Baker, and to be aware that social networking websites could be a gateway for paedophiles to target children.
He warned parents to be vigilant against such risks.
CEOP's website (www.ceop.police.uk) contains advice for parents and authorities on how to tackle child sex abuse.
Baker urged parents to access the site, even if English was not their first language, as advice contained in videos is accessible for parents no matter what their language is. |
