'Men abused children the most during the pandemic'

This article was published part of the Atölye (Workshop) BİA program

Click to read the article in Turkish

In one and a half years, 50 children applied to the Diyarbakır Bar Association for legal aid after abuse.

According to the bianet Male Violence Monitoring Reports, men abused 23 children in Diyarbakır and 49 children throughout the country in October.

Experts say that society hides the truth about child abuse and children feel guilty when they are abused.

CLICK - bianet Male Violence Monitoring Report October 2021

But what is the reason for such a high number in a month and how can families protect their children?

Ferhat Demir, a psychologist, says, "If your child is introverted, does not talk to anyone, is afraid and has bruises on his body and reacts when you try to touch them, you should definitely pay attention here.

"If they are an active child at school and suddenly become quiet, if they don't talk to their friends, it is a traumatic experience and may lead to suicide."

"Children feel guilty when abused"

To prevent abuse, families should give sex education to their children, said Demir.

"Basically, it is very important to inform the child. While doing this, it is necessary to use a language appropriate for the age and development of the child, to say that the child has special parts of their body, that no one can touch their body without their consent. While conveying this, it is necessary not to overwhelm the child.

"Children who are abused generally feel guilty about this and experience great fear. They think that society will blame them. These traumatized children first lose their sense of trust.

"... For this reason, we know of many cases of abuse years after they happen. Because children cannot speak of them. Or we cannot put mechanisms into place to enable them to speak out."

A social service specialist for every neighborhood

Gaye Yalçın, a member of the Diyarbakır Branch of the Social Service Specialists Association, said families should be educated about child abuse.

"The concept of family is dominant in our society. If there is a case of abuse within a family, it is immediately covered. The child is left alone and can't find an environment to make their voice heard. I think these cases will decrease as families become more aware," she said.

"Just as there is a Family Health Center in every neighborhood, a social service specialist should also be appointed in every neighborhood. That person should take care of all the people in the neighborhood, do detailed research, and inform the families.

"On the other hand, there are no environments in this country where children can make their voices heard. Laws need to be strengthened and the number of places to make an application needs to be increased.

"Awareness-raising activities should be carried out for law enforcement officers and hospital workers. Because an abused child first talks to the officer at police stations and doctors and nurses at hospitals. The approach of these people to children is very important.

"In fact, the cases have not increased, they have just become more visible. I think the figure shared by bianet that 23 children were abused in October is just about 20 percent of the cases. There are many cases that are not in official records."

Abuse increased during the pandemic

Huriye Hamdi, a lawyer with the Diyarbakır Association who works on children's rights, also said that the number of cases was very high in the past as well, but they were not heard because there were fewer applications to judicial authorities.

"As the bar association, we are currently following 60 cases. Some of them are other types of crimes. A vast majority of them are sexual abuse. In the past one and a half years, 50 children applied to our bar association because of abuse.

"Children were exposed to abuse the most during the pandemic. Children were imprisoned and trapped in homes without planning. They could not find their teachers, friends, or judicial authorities to make their voices heard. They could not tell anyone anything.

"That's why we can't see any data flow during the period when the schools are closed, but with the opening of the schools, we started to receive data. We consider this data as a result of the pandemic and keeping children at home."

Citing the 2020 figures of the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat), Hamdi said 12.2 percent of the 150,615 child victims of crimes had been subjected to sexual abuse.

"In this data, there was no change in crimes involving children, but there was a 41 percent decrease in injury and sexual offenses. And this shows us that children could not find an environment to make their voices heard during the pandemic."

According to the TurkStat's 2016 figures, the number of cases about child abuse increased three fold in 10 years and 250 children were abused in a decade.

According to a 2018 report by the Human Rights Association (İHD), Turkey ranks third in the world in child abuse. (GK/SO/NÖ/EMK/VK)