Child Abuse Awareness Month

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Every year, April is recognised as Child Abuse Awareness Month to highlight how important it is to prevent violence against children and educate families, carers and adults on spotting the signs of abuse.

Child abuse can affect a person for life and can be initiated by both strangers and adults that the child knows and trusts. Different types of child abuse can harm children in different ways – and can all be equally as damaging.

Child abuse is a terrible crime against some of the most vulnerable people in society and is not often discussed or understood. However, the conversation needs to change as statistics show that a fifth of adults aged from 18 to 74 years experienced at least one form of child abuse when they were younger.

Other figures from the Office for National Statistics show that an estimated 3.1 million adults aged 18 to 74 years were victims of sexual abuse before the age of 16 years; this includes abuse by both adult and child perpetrators.

In this article, we will look at the different types of abuse, how to report child abuse and what you can do if you think a child is being abused.

What is Child Abuse?

The Metropolitan Police defines child abuse as the following:

“Child abuse is when anyone under the age of 18 is either being harmed or not properly looked after. There are four main categories of child abuse: physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse and neglect.”

Types of Child Abuse

Physical abuse

Physical abuse is when someone hurts a child or young person on purpose. Examples of physical abuse are:

Hitting, slapping, shaking or throwing
Burning or scalding
Drowning, suffocating or choking
Pushing or kicking
Inappropriate restraint or false imprisonment
Using physical force to discipline
Misusing medication
Fabricating or inducing an illness or ill health

Signs and symptoms of physical abuse in children can include:

Unexplained recurrent injuries, marks or burns
Covering injuries with clothing even in hot weather
Fear of physical contact and shrinking back if touched

Sexual Abuse

Sexual abuse is when a child is enticed or forced to take part in sexual activities. This kind of abuse does not always involve a high level of violence and the child may or may not be aware of what is happening.

The abuse may be committed by adult men and women, or by other children.

Examples of sexual abuse are:

Causing or inciting a child to watch or engage in sexual activities
Encouraging a child to behave in sexually inappropriate ways
Involving a child in looking at sexual images or videos
Involving a child in the production of sexual images or videos
Grooming a child in preparation for abuse (including via the internet)

Signs and symptoms of sexual abuse in children can include:

Extreme reactions such as depression, self-mutilation, suicide attempts, running away, overdoses or anorexia
Personality changes such as becoming insecure or clinging
Being isolated or withdrawn
Medical problems such as chronic itching, pain in the genitals or venereal diseases

Another form of sexual abuse is child sexual exploitation

Emotional abuse

Emotional abuse happens in many different ways. It can affect how a young person or child feels about themselves, or how they fit in with friends, at school, or where they live.

Examples of emotional abuse are:

Being made to feel inadequate, worthless or unloved
Being unfairly blamed
Being bullied, including over the internet (cyber-bullying)
Being made to feel frightened or in danger
Witnessing the abuse of others such as domestic abuse

Signs and symptoms of emotional abuse in children can include:

Reduced physical, mental and emotional development
Continual self-depreciation, eg: ‘I’m stupid’, ‘I’m ugly’, ‘I’m worthless’
Inappropriate response to pain, eg: ‘I deserve this’
Neurotic behaviour, eg: rocking, hair twisting or self-mutilation

Neglect

Neglect is when a child or young person’s basic needs are persistently not being met by their parent or guardian. These basic needs include:

Adequate food, clothing and shelter
Protection from physical and emotional harm or danger
Adequate supervision (including not being left at home alone)
Access to appropriate medical care including dental treatment

Signs and symptoms of neglect in children can include:

Constant hunger or tiredness
Poor personal hygiene
Poor condition and cleanliness of clothing
Untreated medical problems
No social relationships

Non-recent and historic child abuse

Non-recent child abuse or historical abuse, is when an adult was abused as a child or young person under the age of 18. Sometimes adults who were abused in childhood blame themselves or are made to feel it’s their fault, but this is never the case.

You might have known you were abused for a very long or only recently learnt or understood what happened to you. Whether the abuse happened once or hundreds of times, a year or 70 years ago, whatever the circumstances, there’s support to help you. It’s never too late.

However, it is never too late to report abuse.

How to report possible child abuse

If you are a victim of child abuse or are worried about the wellbeing of a child, you should report your concerns. Even if you are not 100 per cent sure, by reporting this you could be saving a life.

If you suspect someone is in immediate danger, call 999 now. If you have a hearing or speech impairment, use the textphone service at 18000 or send a text to 999 if you’ve pre-registered with the emergencySMS service.

If it isn’t an emergency, please reach out in any of these other ways:

Call the non-emergency, 24/7 number: 101. If you have a hearing or speech impairment, use the textphone service at 18001 101.
Visit a police station to speak to an officer in person
Contact the NSPCC to speak to a professional practitioner
Contact the children’s social care team at your local council
Contact Fearless confidentially and anonymously

If you’re a child, you could also speak to someone you trust, like a friend, a teacher or another adult.