New sex abuse trend a concern

The Child Care Board (CCB) is seeing a worrisome trend of sexual abuse cases where children, some between the ages of four to seven years, are performing sexual acts such as fellatio on each other.

Director Roseann Richards expressed the concern recently, saying this behaviour was “indicative of a lack of supervision, exposure to pornographic material or worse yet, reports that these younger children are seeing their older siblings watch pornographic videos”.

She said there were also increased reports of neglect where young children presented to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for ingestion of hazardous substances such as chemicals and rat bait, and burns to the body.

The director reiterated that the Board has recorded a high number of cases of child abuse within the last four years. In 2021, there were 667; 672 in 2022 to 2023, and 677 between 2023 to 2024. While statistics ranging from 2024 to the end of March this year are not completed, she said they were also in the 600 range.

Richards was speaking during a workshop at the 3Ws Pavilion, University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus. The CCB’s final activity for Child Abuse Prevention And Awareness Month was held to sensitise stakeholders to the ins and outs of child abuse, touching on where it is necessary to report and where it must be prevented.

This year, there was engagement with religious groups as they examined child abuse in places of worship, under the theme Behind The Cloth: Examining Child Abuse In Faith-Based Organisations.

“The Barbadian society is not immune to cases of child abuse. For every case that is reported to the Child Care Board, there are many which may go unreported due to a lack of awareness, fear of damaging the family or the institution’s reputation, or uncertainty about how to proceed,” Richards said.

“All of you are important to us in fighting this fight of child abuse within the Barbadian society. At the end of the day, while we sensitise, we make every effort to ensure that our children continue to enjoy safe spaces in which they grow, learn and develop, and reach their full potential to be better citizens and make it a better Barbados for all of us,” she said.

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