‘Children’s Authority sending wrong message’

THE Women Working for Social Progress group has said ads put out by the Children’s Authority are sending the wrong message. The organisation said the authority’s ads are laying the blame for sexual assault on children over the way they are dressed.

In a release yesterday, the organisation said it was disappointed by the ads, which are carrying messages harmful to the safety of children. The organisation said one of the ad by the authority says, “Ensure children are appropriately dressed, to avoid exposing them to unwarranted attention from predators.”

Working Women said, “This message places the blame for sexual assault on the child’s appearance. Surely this cannot apply to the babies, toddlers, children and teens assaulted in their homes, by trusted adults.”

In another ad, the authority advises, “Only a guardian or a parent can administer corporal punishment. However, it must be reasonable.”

WorkingWomen responded: “We call on the Children’s Authority to withdraw these harmful messages and to fulfil their mandate to be informed advocates who work conscientiously and intelligently for and on behalf of our nation’s children.

The organisation is also calling upon the Division of Gender and Child Affairs to intervene in what it says is a serious matter and nothing less than a crisis.

“The Children’s Authority needs to have a uniform child protection philosophy, and training for staff in keeping with this philosophy. Should people now throw away the laws against domestic violence and advise the public that in the home it’s okay for men to beat women or vice versa, as long as the beating is ‘reasonable’?

If TT accepts this advisory from the Children’s Authority, it said, “People will have to come up with a manual for ‘reasonable’ or ‘good’ child-beating. Secondly, the Children’s Authority should know better than to equate the word ‘discipline’ with the word ‘punishment.’”

Hanif Benjamin, chairman of the authority, said he was unaware of the ads and was not in the country and asked for all questions be forwarded to head of communications at the authority Cheryl Moses, but several calls to her went unanswered.

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