SA's approach to child abuse commended

SA was praised for showing its commitment to tackling sexual violence against children by enacting 'comprehensive' legislation. The index on child sexual abuse and exploitation, published by the Economist Intelligence Unit, a research arm of The Economist Group, also praised SA's training and guidance support workers in dealing with these cases, reports TimesLIVE. 'The Department of Education issues guidelines for teaching professionals, and there are similar programmes for medical, social and psychiatric workers,' the report said. 'Victim support and resources for legal and law enforcement professionals could be strengthened.' It praised laws prohibiting buying minors for sex filming or photographing of minors having sex; human trafficking; and online grooming. It also praised Vodacom's toll-free line offering children counselling. The index ranked how 40 countries respond to these issues at a national level. The index did not measure the scale of the problem in each country but examined how stakeholders are responding to the threat of child sexual abuse and exploitation. Only half of the 40 countries collect nationally representative prevalence data on child sexual abuse. Only five collect this data on child sexual exploitation. The report found that boys were overlooked, with 21 countries having no legal protections for boys in their child rape laws. Only 18 countries collect prevalence data about the sexual abuse of boys.