Coronavirus Fears of Increased Child Sex Abuse May Be Being Realized in USA

Why sudden drop in calls to child abuse hotline due to coronavirus is not good news

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Praying for children is more important now than ever!

Illinois child welfare officials fear a decline in Department of Children and Family Services hotline abuse reports is only because children are out of school, and teachers, social workers and counselors aren't able to see signs of abuse. ProPublica Illinois

By Duaa Eldeib

ProPublica Illinois

With schools, day care centers and preschools around Illinois shut down as part of statewide efforts to contain the spread of the coronavirus, calls to the Department of Children and Family Services' abuse and neglect hotline have dropped dramatically over the past week.

But child welfare experts and others don't believe this decline reflects a decrease in abuse; on the contrary, many fear that children are now at a greater risk of being hurt as families, many facing additional stress over work and health issues, hunker down in isolation.

Because children aren't in school or child care, the teachers, social workers and counselors most likely to spot signs of abuse and who are required by state law to report those allegations, can't.

"Unfortunately, we know there aren't changes in the number of children being abused or neglected," DCFS spokesman Jassen Strokosch said.

During the week of March 9, before Gov. J.B. Pritzker's order to close all schools, DCFS received 6,672 reports of abuse and neglect via the statewide hotline -- 91% by phone and 9% through an online reporting system.

Pritzker's school shutdown order went into effect the following Tuesday, March 17, and as parents began to lose their jobs or were ordered to work from home, the number of hotline reports plummeted by 45% to 3,675 that week, the DCFS figures show.                                                                                                                             

The hotline receives about 950 calls a day during peak times -- about 6,650 a week -- according to a 2019 report.

The steep drop comes at a perilous moment for families. Child welfare experts worry that the uncertainty and anxiety caused by the coronavirus and the impact it will have on people's jobs, their ability to pay bills or make rent will put children in increased danger at home.

"The risk of child abuse and neglect just shot through the roof," said Kate Gordon Eller, an attorney and founder of The Gordon Foundation, a Chicago-based child welfare nonprofit. "The stress on everybody is growing every day. People are not able to maintain the same income. Then you have all these kids who are home all day. And it's indefinite."

The situation might worsen in the weeks to come. Strokosch said he expects to see the number of reports of abuse and neglect tumble further in the next week.

Following Pritzker's shelter-at-home order, which went into effect on Saturday, children are even more removed from the public eye, likely spending less time outside and with doctors and dentists, who are designated as mandated reporters because they are legally required to alert the state when they suspect abuse or neglect.

The system, he said, relies on people notifying the agency of these concerns, though DCFS has faced criticism when the hotline wasn't able to accept calls as they came in and was hampered by inefficiency and inadequate technology. School officials report allegations of abuse to DCFS more than most other categories of workers, including police or medical personnel, Strokosch said.

"If we had a family who was in crisis before, the additional pressure of COVID-19 puts them at greater risk," Strokosch said.

Research shows that the risk of child abuse rises in times of economic stress, said Char Rivette, executive director of the nonprofit Chicago Children's Advocacy Center. And reports of abuse and neglect typically drop during the summer when children are at home or when other events keep children away from school, such as the Chicago Public Schools teachers' strike late last year, Rivette said. But the unprecedented nature of the current crisis has left workers particularly uneasy.

"We're very concerned," Rivette said. "We know abuse happens in isolation, especially sexual abuse. All of these kids are staying home with family members, and those are the people most likely to abuse kids."

The center, which works with Chicago police and DCFS to interview children in sexual abuse investigations, also has seen its case numbers drop dramatically. The office went from 10 to 15 cases a day to three to four, Rivette said.

New Zealand's State-Run Child Abuse Shame

More than 100,000 NZ children were made state wards in the second half of the 20th century. 

Photo / 123RF

By: Toby Manhire

Disappointingly, when it was revealed this week that there will be an investigation into a historic case of transgression in New Zealand welfare, it was about the Metiria Turei shemozzle.

If all the huffing and puffing around the Green co-leader's admission she cheated the system back in the 90s could be harnessed, it would light up the national grid.

But better still, all that imperious energy would be much better applied to a much more grievous and attention-worthy case of welfare betrayal in New Zealand: the abuse of children in state care.

The latest heart-wrenching chapter in one of our country's most shameful stories was published just yesterday.

Departing disability rights commissioner Paul Gibson released a collection of testimonies from people with intellectual disabilities who lived in the haunted houses of public institutions -places where the state played custodian and tormentor.

Intellectually disabled children were beaten. Tied to their beds. Abandoned in seclusion rooms. Sodomised. Lobotomised.

"A lifetime of abuse and distress, and a life devoid of love and family," is Gibson's summary.

"Their abuse was physical, psychological and sexual." These are, he says, "the stories of New Zealand's stolen generations".

The allusion to the term used to describe the Australian Aboriginal children removed from their families through much of the last century - a hideous stain on our neighbour's reputation - can be no accident.

More than 100,000 NZ children were made state wards in the second half of the 20th century. In some cases they came from homes blighted by parental abuse or neglect. Some had fallen foul of the law.

In other cases the children's parents had died or their families splintered. Placed in foster homes, in borstals and other institutions, many hundreds, if not thousands, were indelibly scarred, a blowtorch taken to their faith in humanity. The effects continue to play out today, strained through generations.

Probably the most insidious impact is on Māori. "The funnelling of Māori children into welfare institutions was the real start of our systematic mass imprisonment in this country," says Elizabeth Stanley, who tells the stories of more than 100 former state wards in her book The Road to Hell: State Violence against Children in Postwar New Zealand. Research shows that Māori in the same circumstances as Pakeha were more likely to be taken into state care - "the very definition of institutional racism or systemic discrimination", says race relations commissioner Susan Devoy.

"Without an inquiry into the abuse suffered in our state run institutions," she adds, "we will never know its true extent."

Judge Carolyn Henwood, who led the Confidential Listening and Assistance Service, which heard from more than 1,000 victims of abuse in state care, puts it like this: "If we keep sending Māori children into care, they'll suffer. It is a destructive, self-fulfilling prophecy."

The wider findings of that Listening Service, which ran for seven years to 2015, like almost every account of these decades of abuse, invoke a mix of gut-churning disgust and awe at the survivors' courage.

Henwood's summary: "A picture was painted for us of a careless, neglectful system which allowed cruelty, sexual abuse, bullying and violence to start and continue. Through their words and tears, we could see the invisible welts and bruises, as well as the deeper hurt and emotional damage ... All the people who came forward to speak to us had struggled to make sense of their lives. All wanted a better outcome for the children of the future."

That Listening Service, however, stopped far short of an inquiry proper. It had " done half the job", said Henwood last year. But, "what we don't know is why it went on. We haven't investigated the department itself, we haven't spoken to staff ... So why wouldn't it happen again? ... We do not know the why of it."

And yet the government has repeatedly and steadfastly batted away appeals for a probe of the why. Their reasons? Among them: the trouble similar efforts have encountered overseas; the cost; the distraction; the claim that everything has been sorted in the overhaul of what is now the Ministry for Vulnerable Children.

Social development minister Anne Tolley has even asserted, "there's no evidence that it was a systemic problem". Even if you accept that curious statement to be true, it is a kind of nonsense: evidence is precisely what an inquiry would pursue.

And there's this, from Tolley: "The question I ask is what would we gain from an inquiry that revictimises the victims for whom we are trying to get some compensation and some settlement. It is appalling that we would put those people through that again."

A fair question. But while numerous victims have come forward to call for an inquiry, I've yet to see so much as a single victim arguing to the contrary.

The government has stressed that settlements have been reached with more than 700 victims, with direct apologies offered where sought. But still there has been no blanket apology - presumably at lawyers' advising.

Late last year Tolley, meanwhile, pointed out that "in some cases they've had an apology from me, and I was only a child at the time" - as if anyone was ever suggesting she was personally responsible.

Around the same time, John Key offered as one reason he wouldn't back an inquiry the fact that "you can never right the wrongs" of what happened - as if anyone was ever suggesting you could.

In recent weeks, Key's successor, Bill English, has perceptibly softened the government position, saying he's prepared to listen to representations from those affected. That's something.

But what's to hear? The Human Rights Commission has poured its energy into calling for a formal independent inquiry.

Carolyn Henwood agrees. So does Unicef. So does the Maori Women's Welfare League. So do a host of other experts. 

Most importantly of all, victim after victim has come forward to demand the same.

Very rarely to victims of historical abuse ever get closure until they have had the opportunity to tell their story in public. Until they do, New Zealand will never be able to leave this story behind.

On leaving his post as disabilities commissioner Paul Gibson exhorted the government to take action, to "restore the mana of the state". That is one hell of a chorus, and it is time to crack on.

Child Sex Abuse is Everywhere, Even the South Pole

Man jailed for trying to set up child sex abuse from south pole

Simon Rouen told two undercover police officers he wanted to sexually abuse an eight-year-old girl in email exchange

This is what 'cabin fever' looks like. Simon Rouen has been in isolation
far too long.

A man has been jailed for three years for trying to arrange the sexual abuse of a child while working at the south pole.

Simon Rouen, 36, was arrested at Heathrow last March as he arrived back in the UK, a police spokesman said.

He had expressed his desire to sexually abuse an eight-year-old girl to two undercover police officers while working overseas.

Various emails were exchanged, with the final message sent in March from Chile as Rouen, from Redruth, Cornwall, made his way back to Britain, Kent police said.

He was arrested at the airport by officers from Kent police’s paedophile online investigation team and taken to Maidstone police station to be interviewed.

The spokesman said Rouen had been storing indecent images of children on his computer.

He was charged with arranging the facilitation of a child sex offence and possessing indecent images of children and remanded in custody.

Rouen was found guilty of the charges at Southwark Crown Court in January and sentenced at the same court on Tuesday.

He will be subject to a sexual offences prevention order and has been made to sign the sex offender register.

According to Rouen’s LinkedIn profile, he worked for the British Antarctic Survey as a laboratory manager from October 2013.

DC Jo Gordon, from Kent police, said: “Throughout the course of the emails he sent, Simon Rouen demonstrated a very real desire to sexually abuse the child when he returned to England.

“Fortunately, through our proactive investigations we were able to identify the risk he posed to children and intercept him before any child could be abused.

“We will use all the techniques available to us to apprehend people who prey upon children online, and who use the internet as a tool to find children to sexually abuse or to view indecent images of children.”

Good work guys! Bless you.