Lately, I have been noticing a lot of my friends and other people doing this trend on Facebook. The message goes: "Change your profile picture to a cartoon from your childhood. The goal? To not see a human face on FB till Monday, December 6th. Join the fight against child abuse. CHILD ABUSE IS UNACCEPTABLE!! Copy and paste to your status to invite your friends to do the same."
Health Canada, in the Child Maltreatment Section states child abuse as: "Child maltreatment can be categorized into several broad types including: physical abuse, sexual abuse, neglect/failure to provide, and emotional maltreatment.
Some child abuse stats from around the world:
- Worldwide, approximately 40 million children are subjected to child abuse each year (WHO, 2000).
- A Canadian child abuse statistics survey done by Bibby in 2000 (2001)revealed that 56% of adolescents rated child abuse as their top societal concern.
- Adolescents experience maltreatment at rates equal to or exceeding those of younger children (Council on Scientific Affairs, 1993, p. 1850).
- Sexual abuse statistics vary between countries and reports, but are consistently alarming: One country's research indicates that up to 36% of girls and 29% of boys have suffered child sexual abuse; another study reveals up to 46% of girls and 20% of boys have experienced sexual coercion (The 57th session of the UN Commission on Human Rights).
- Each year, approximately one million more children around the world are introduced into commercial sexual exploitation (Casa Alianza, 2001).
- In a study of runaways presenting at an emergency ward who reported a history of maltreatment, 83% had disabilities as compared to 47% of the non-maltreatment runaways. Using information collected from schools, 34% of the maltreated had disabilities as opposed to 17% of the non-maltreated runaways (Sullivan, et al., 2000).
- Close to one-third of teens between ages 14 and 19 who participated in a Canadian study had experienced some kind of childhood abuse or neglect (Wolfe, 2001).
- Girl victims reported emotional distress, post-traumatic-stress related symptoms and acts of both violent and non-violent delinquency. Boy victims of child maltreatment reported far less emotional distress and delinquent behaviours; however, they were far more likely to assault their dating partners (Wolfe, 2001).
