Child sexual exploitation and abuse

Nov 18, 2025 Editorial, News

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Editorial…

Kaieteur News – Today, the world pauses to mark the World Day for the Prevention of, and Healing from, Child Sexual Exploitation, Abuse and Violence.  It is a day meant for reflection, but also for reckoning. Because behind the UN declarations and observances stand millions of deeply scarred children whose lives have been forever altered by acts of violence carried out against them in silence, secrecy, and shame.

According to the United Nations, countless young people across the globe are victims of sexual misconduct and exploitation. These horrors are not confined to troubled regions or unstable countries, they cut across every nation, every class, and every culture. Children, especially girls, bear the brunt of forced sex, exploitation, and abuse, both online and offline. Conflict zones add yet another layer of danger, where rape and sexual violence against children become weapons of war. The global crises of recent years, COVID-19, armed conflicts, climate disasters, widening inequality, and chronic poverty have all intensified children’s vulnerability.

In places where family stress is high and social protections are weak, predators thrive. When root causes are ignored, when institutions fail, children are left exposed. Survivors of child abuse often face lifelong impacts on their physical, sexual, and mental health. In many cases, the trauma inflicted amounts to torture. Yet, the UN points out that most victims never speak. Shame muzzles their voices; fear keeps them silent. That silence is deadly. It means the perpetrator continues unchecked. It means the child suffers alone. It means the cycle continues. The 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda places children’s dignity at its core, calling for an end to all forms of violence, exploitation, trafficking, and torture. It demands an end to harmful practices such as child marriage and female genital mutilation, practices that place children at immediate risk of sexual abuse. But declarations alone do nothing. The promises of world leaders must be matched with action, resources, and unrelenting political will.

The global numbers are staggering: 120 million girls under 20 have endured forced sexual contact. While comprehensive global statistics for boys are lacking, data from several countries show prevalence rates between 3% and 17%. One in four children under five lives with a mother who is herself a victim of intimate partner violence a direct indicator of a violent and unsafe home. Adults with four or more adverse childhood experiences are 30 times more likely to attempt suicide and seven times more likely to be involved in interpersonal violence. And disturbingly, 1 in 20 men admits to engaging in sexualised behaviour online with children under 12.

These are not abstract numbers, they are warning sirens. Here at home, the crisis is real. In February, Minister of Human Services and Social Security Dr. Vindhya Persaud disclosed that 275 cases of child abuse were recorded for the year up to that point. Last year, we saw an appalling 4,038 reported cases, spanning physical, emotional, sexual, and verbal abuse, as well as neglect. Anyone who follows the pages of Kaieteur News knows that each week brings fresh horror: a raped toddler, a beaten schoolchild, a discarded infant. The frequency alone is an indictment of our collective failure. It does not matter which school of psychology one subscribes to all agree that childhood forms the foundation of adulthood. The adult emerges from the child. When a child is violated, injured, humiliated, or ignored, society pays the price later. Damaged children become adults who struggle to form healthy relationships, who battle inner demons, who may themselves become perpetrators or lifelong victims. Traumatic experiences do not vanish; they sink deep into the psyche, resurfacing as disorders, dysfunction, or despair. Every child is of equal worth, entitled to the same social, economic, civil, and political rights as any other. Child abuse, defined as any act of omission or commission that impairs a child’s development, is made possible because adults wield disproportionate power.

Whether through physical violence, sexual exploitation, emotional harm, or neglect, abuse is always an abuse of power. In Guyana, physical abuse remains common, often masked as “discipline.” But corporal punishment that leaves a child bruised, burned, bleeding, or in need of medical attention is not discipline—it is abuse. And it is criminal. As we join the global community in marking this day, let us be clear: no country can claim progress while its children remain unsafe. No nation can boast development while young bodies and minds are being shattered behind closed doors. The protection of children is not merely a legal obligation, it is a moral one. It demands action by families, teachers, police, courts, and every institution meant to shield the young. It demands that we believe children when they speak. It demands that we remove predators from positions of access and power. And it demands that we stop treating child abuse as a periodic headline and start treating it as the national emergency that it is. A society that fails its children fails itself. Guyana must choose what kind of society it wants to be.

 

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• Abuse and Violence, armed conflicts, Child Sexual Exploitation, climate disasters, COVID-19, prevention

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