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Recent events have highlighted the dire state of youth sexual abuse and assault in South Africa, and after the South African Police Service (SAPS) recently released their annual crime report, we can’t emphasise enough that we aren’t doing enough to protect our children.
The stats revealed that incidences of reported rape have increased from 39 828 to 40 035 over the 2017/2018 period. In previous reports, it was also mentioned that children made up 41% of all rape cases.
Have you spoken to your child about consent yet? How did you go about this discussion with your child? Tell us by emailing chatback@parent24.com and we may publish your letter. Do let us know if you'd like to remain anonymous.
The same is happening the world over. In the video above, schoolgirls aged 12 to 14 were beaten in India for resisting boys who sexually harassed them.
“(They were) writing bad things (on the wall), when we told them (to stop), the boys started beating us,” says one victim of the attack.
Sex crimes against minors in India have risen by more than 500% in the past 10 years and a child is sexually abused every 15 minutes in the country, according to the NGO Child Rights.
The video explains that in this particular incident the boys came with a mob of people, which included their parents, to attack the girls. This tells that part of the youth still believe in continuing an inherently sexist society tortured by toxic masculinity, which has been passed down from older generations – perpetuated and taught by their parents – making it all the more discouraging.
If we aren’t teaching our children to respect another’s privacy and each's right to bodily autonomy, if we aren’t raising our boys as equals to our girls, but instead teaching young women to be sexually submissive under the authority of boys and men, and if we aren’t teaching our kids that "no" means "no" and that overriding that is sexual harassment and assault – then not only are we not doing enough, we’re doing something very wrong.
Have you spoken to your child about consent yet? How did you go about this discussion with your child? Tell us by emailing chatback@parent24.com and we may publish your letter. Do let us know if you'd like to remain anonymous.
Read more:
- These consent classes have reduced rape by 51% in Nairobi
- Eek! My child is going on camp!
- Will you raise your sons to become like Harvey Weinstein? Watch Big Bang Theory's Mayim Bialik respond
