Germany seeks to toughen penalties for child sex abuse, child porn
by: Associated Press/KTLA
Posted: Oct 21, 2020 / 09:09 AM PDT
German Chancellor Angela Merkel attends the weekly cabinet meeting of the German government
at the chancellery in Berlin, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2020. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, Pool)
Germany’s Cabinet on Wednesday approved draft legislation that will allow for tougher punishment of sexual abuse of children and the possession of child pornography.
The government initiated the bill in the wake of prominent recent child abuse cases in Germany that feature large numbers of suspects.
It uses the term “sexualized violence against children” instead of the current “sexual abuse” and raises the potential sentence to between one and 15 years in prison. At present, sentences range from six months to 10 years.
Distributing child pornography will draw a sentence of one to 10 years, up from the current range of three months to five years, and in some cases 15 years. Possession and procurement of the material will be punished with one to five years in prison, up from the current maximum of three years.
And in the future, the statute of limitations will only fall on the production of child pornography when the victim turns 30.
Is that an improvement? Because it's not much of one! Why the Statute of Limitations at all? Child sex abuse images won't disappear from the internet because the child reaches 30.
The legislation also calls for the production and distribution of child sex dolls to be punished with a fine or up to five years in prison, while buying and possessing such dolls would bring a sentence of up to three years in prison.
It foresees special qualification requirements for judges handling child abuse issues. - Excellent!
“Perpetrators fear nothing more than being discovered, so we must massively increase the pressure in tracking them,” Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht said in a statement. “The terrible injustice of these acts must also be expressed in the sentences.”
The legislation requires parliamentary approval.
Slovenia: draft law on Barnahus will better protect children from sexual abuse
COUNCIL OF EUROPE STRASBOURG
6 NOVEMBER 2020
The results and key recommendations of the public consultation process of the draft law on Barnahus in Slovenia are being discussed today at an online event. Barnahus (“Children’s House”) is a leading European model for a child-friendly multidisciplinary and interagency response to child sexual abuse.
The main focus of the draft law is to provide a framework for the establishment and operations of a Slovenian Barnahus. The draft law seeks to regulate in more detail all aspects of interacting with children and their families in such houses: hearing (forensic interviewing of the child), physical medical examination, providing crisis support and psycho-social services for child victims and their families.
The Slovenian Ministry of Justice opened the draft law for public consultation on 4 June 2020, and it is scheduled to be submitted to Slovenia’s National Assembly by the end of the year. The draft law represents a major step towards the establishment of a first Barnahus in Slovenia by 2021. At international level, it is the first attempt to comprehensively regulate the establishment and operations of “Children’s Barnahus” in a single act.
Slovenia’s Minister of Justice of Slovenia, Mag. Lilijana Kozlovič, the Council of Europe Coordinator for the rights of the child Regina Jensdottir and the Deputy Head of Unit for governance and public administration (EU DG Reform) Sebastien Renaud, as well as Bragi Gudbrandsson, member of the UN Committee of the Rights of the Child and “founding father” of the Icelandic Barnahus model, are among the webinar’s keynote speakers.
During the public consultation process a study “Perceptions of child sexual abuse in Slovenia” was commissioned and presented in Ljubljana in early October. The survey found that for a majority of Slovenians, sexual abuse of children is a serious problem, and nearly one in five had experienced at least one form of sexual abuse, but the awareness of this type of abuse in Slovenia is low.
Both the webinar and the study have been conducted under the joint EU-Council of Europe project on supporting the implementation of Barnahus (Children’s House) in Slovenia and implemented in close collaboration with the Ministry of Justice and co-financed by the European Union Structural Reform Support Programme.
San Antonio man to run 223 miles in 3 days to raise money
for child sex assault victims
Sexual abuse survivor Kenneth Anderlitch turns his healing into advocacy
SAN ANTONIO - – According to Childsafe, 90% of child sex assault victims stay silent -- something that Kenneth Anderlitch understands.
It took years for Anderlitch to come forward with his painful story. “A little over five years ago, coming to terms with that,” he said.
Anderlitch said he never had access to an organization like Childsafe in Bexar County.
“Last year we saw 5,200 plus clients, and 76% of them were sexual abuse cases,” said Maliha Imami of Childsafe. “Our services are forensic interviews, wrap-around services, advocacy, case management and clinical therapy.”
As Childsafe’s chief advancement officer, Imami leads the organization’s financial and fundraising teams. She is working hand-in-hand with Anderlitch, who is about to run 223 miles to raise money for the care center.
“Each child takes close to $1,000 to get them through services, a full year. So, I would like to raise $10,000 to help at least 10 children start their path towards recovery,” Anderlitch said.
Over the last four months, Anderlitch has juggled a full time job, part time school and training.
He said the run wouldn’t be possible without his Road 2 Healing support team, which includes Roel Gonzales and Ben Adan, who have also run routes hundreds of miles long.
Anderlitch will take off at 4 a.m. Thursday from the Capitol building in Austin and plans to finish at the Lexington Bridge in Corpus Christi on Saturday afternoon.
He said the work and planning will be worth it, knowing he is helping break the cycle of sexual abuse, stigma and unearned shame. “The shame and guilt lives with you into your adulthood, and most of the time, especially for men, it’s difficult for them to come out and speak about sexual abuse,” Imami said.
Imami said just like domestic violence, reports of child sexual assault have dropped off during quarantine. “In the initial stages of the pandemic, the reports went down because 20% of reports are made by teachers, physicians, people who have access to children. Children feel safe they can report it,” she said.
When lockdowns were lifted, domestic abuse reports skyrocketed. Imami said child sex assault reports spiked, just not as much, citing the difficulty for children making an outcry to family members who usually know the perpetrator.
“99% of the perpetrators are known and trusted by the child,” Imami said.
According to RAINN, it is 8 out of 10. However, RAINN does not count peer-on-peer child sexual abuse in their statistics, unfortunately. 99% is probably an exaggeration, but certainly, the vast majority of abusers are known to their victims.
Anderlitch said that’s why he tells his own story and advocates for children, knowing the pain of silence and the relief of freedom. “Hopefully somewhere down the line those 10 children, one of them, will carry the torch and help out another individual,” he said.
Anderlitch hopes to create a ripple effect of healing, love and inner peace.
To find out more about Anderlitch’s run or to donate to his cause, head to his website.
Anyone is also welcome to follow along as he runs, through his Facebook page.
God bless you Ken! Have a great run.
This American immigrant to Israel is fighting sexual abuse
among the haredi Orthodox
BY LARRY LUXNER
NOVEMBER 18, 2020 12:28 PM
Debbie Gross founded the Tahel Crisis Center for Religious Women and Children to address what she considered rampant child sexual abuse in the Orthodox neighborhood of Jerusalem where she once lived. (Larry Luxner)
ASHKELON, Israel — Not long ago, an 18-year-old girl from a haredi Orthodox family in Jerusalem anonymously called a hotline for victims of sexual abuse, suspicious that her father was molesting her 10-year-old sister.
Representatives of Tahel, a crisis center for Orthodox women and children, reached out to the mother and escorted her and her two daughters to the police. The father was arrested, convicted and sent to prison.
In another case, three Orthodox men in their late 20s approached Tahel after a Jerusalem psychologist they had consulted for so-called “conversion therapy,” which claims to reverse homosexual urges, had emotionally, sexually and financially abused them.
“This case would have been closed by the police, but we kept pushing it,” said Tahel’s founder, Debbie Gross. “That man is now sitting in jail.”
Gross, 64, has been running Tahel since she founded the center in 1993, when simply talking about sexual abuse within Israel’s highly insular Orthodox community was even more taboo than it is today.
“I spent a lot of time that first year going from rabbi to rabbi. In public, they would say there was no sexual or domestic abuse,” Gross said in a recent interview at her Ashkelon apartment overlooking the Mediterranean. “It took the Orthodox community a long time to realize the depths of the abuse. They considered it a ‘chilul Hashem’ — that if you say something bad about a religious Jew, it’s like you took the Torah and rolled it in pig manure.”
Today, Tahel not only maintains a 24-hour hotline for women and children facing any type of crisis, but also escorts sexual abuse victims to the police, hospitals and through the court system. In addition, Tahel offers culturally and religiously sensitive workshops in haredi schools aimed at preventing abuse.
“We use language these children know, and we don’t expose them to anything that would be considered forbidden in their world,” said Gross, who also has pioneered programs on sexual abuse for traditionalist communities in Johannesburg and in the East Indian community in Australia.
Among haredi children, for example, Tahel never uses the term sexual abuse. “Instead, we explain that not everybody is nice and good, and that’s why it’s a mitzvah to protect yourself,” Gross said.
In addition to its work among the haredim, Tahel also does trainings, runs post-trauma workshops and develops safety protocols for businesses, workplaces and schools throughout Israel. Last month, it ran a course for five local high-tech companies, including a medical equipment manufacturer and several digital software firms.
Gross was born in Syracuse, New York, and grew up in New England. She attended Barnard College in New York City, immigrated to Israel in 1978 and studied developmental psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
The idea for Tahel took shape around Gross’s kitchen table in 1992 after she and two other women decided that something had to be done about what they considered rampant child sexual abuse in Har Nof, the Orthodox neighborhood of Jerusalem where they all lived. Israel had rape crisis centers, but few Orthodox Israelis turned to them. With their unique cultural background, Orthodox Israelis needed a different kind of approach, the women believed.
“These women are afraid they’ll be shunned by the community, and that it’ll be harder to make shidduchim [matches] because nobody wants to deal with families that have problems,” Gross said. “Before we opened our center, people still believed that nice Jewish men don’t hurt their wives.”
There is more to this story at jta
Albanian Soprano Speaks Up Over Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation
From: Alice Taylor
12 hrs ago
World-famous Albanian soprano Ermonela Jaho has declared her support against child sexual abuse and exploitation and has been made an Ambassador of the CRCA/ECPAT child rights organisation in Albania.
In honour of the World Day for Prevention of Child Abuse which takes place today and tomorrow, she said:
“Violators are stealing the innocence and brittleness of our children but they will never succeed in silencing them. Children and young people all over the world are suffering because of sexual exploitation online and offline. Let’s become the voice of those who do not have one!"
She is the first Albanian personality to engage in the fight against child sexual violence at a time when globally, rates of such abuse are going up. According to CRCA, Albania declared a 1000 fold increase in reports of child pornography during the COVID-19 lockdown.
The announcement coincides with an apparent increase in cases of sexual violence against women and girls in Albania. A number of disturbing cases have been made public in the last few weeks. Barnahus Albania, a local NGO reports it has saved around 30 girls from abuse in the last months.
In communications with Exit, CRCA Albania said that one in 10 Albanian children are victims of sexual abuse but only 42% of cases are found guilty. This is the lowest rate of conviction in Europe.
These are only the cases known to police, I believe. It is probably a very small percentage of the real number.
Thank you, Ermonela for speaking out. God bless you.
Georgia participating in European Day against Sexual Abuse of Children
Child abuse cases have decreased in Georgia by almost 30 per cent, with 1,146 cases reported in January and August 2020
Agenda.ge, 18 Nov 2020 - 15:46,
Tbilisi, Georgia
On the occasion of the 6th European Day on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse, the Council of Europe has raised the topic of preventing risky behaviour by children related to self-generating sexual images and/or videos especially during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Marija Pejcinovic Buric said that during the Covid-19 related lockdowns children tend to play and chat online more than before which gives child offenders online more opportunity for phishing via email or unsolicited contacts on social media.
In addition, travel restrictions have pushed a lot of child sexual abuse online... Children have little knowledge of the risks they are exposing themselves to. Once online, images and videos deleted are very hard to fully remove from the web. Children can easily fall into the trap of online child sex offenders who solicit their victims to post more images or videos”, she said.
Spokesperson of the Council of Europe Daniel Holtgen shared some of Buric's quotes on his Twitter account:
Georgia is a signatory country of the Council of Europe’s Lanzarote Committee, the body in charge of monitoring the implementation of the Council of Europe Convention on the protection of children against sexual exploitation and sexual abuse.
Georgia became a party of the convention in 2015 and is one of the 47 countries that have ratified the Council of Europe’s Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse (the Lanzarote Convention).
About 1,146 Child abuse cases were reported in Georgia in January-August 2020, according to the Agency for State Care and Assistance for the Victims of Human Trafficking.
Child abuse cases down 30% in Georgia in Jan - Aug 2020
This is not really good news. It would be, of course, if it were true. But as it says above, the pandemic has pushed a lot of child sexual abuse online, and hidden much of it behind closed doors. I fear the drop in cases is just a reflection of the inadequate systems for reporting such abuse.
The Public Defender's report says that almost every day, one child becomes a victim of sexual abuse in Georgia.
How North Wales’ children are being helped to rebuild their lives
after sexual abuse
By Steve Craddock
Chief Reporter - The Leader
Emma Roberts, Children's Service Practitioner
ACROSS North Wales, children as young as four whose lives may have been turned upside down by sexual abuse are being helped to rebuild their lives with the support of a dedicated team of NSPCC Cymru workers.
The charity’s Letting the Future In programme helps children and young people who have been sexually abused come to terms with what has happened to them and support them to move on in a positive way.
In 2019/20 there were more than 3,700 child sex offences recorded by police in Wales – the equivalent of 10 a day, highlighting the need for a Welsh Government Child Sexual Abuse Strategy beyond 2021 and therapeutic support programmes like Letting the Future In.
Every week children’s service practitioners like Emma Roberts work with families across the six northern counties.
Since 2013, the Letting the Future In team has supported 229 children, young people and safe carers in North Wales.
“When children come through our door they either want you to fix them or think that because they have lived with this abuse that they are damaged or broken and that there’s nothing that can be done,” said Emma.
“What we do is provide a safe space for children and young people to explore, question and understand the past events of their lives so we can support their emotional and developmental recovery.”
Reflecting on the children and young people she has worked with over the course of almost seven years, she said: “Shame is one of the biggest emotions we help children and young people to overcome, but also vulnerability, embarrassment, anxiety and anger.
“Parents and carers might comment that their child is very aggressive and angry, but when you start to unpick it, it is actually hurt, disappointment and upset.
“Whilst some children display a lot of emotion, others are completely withdrawn and dissociating. You would look at them and think that everything was fine. They nod and smile and present like there is nothing about the world that frightens them.
“It’s only by developing a trusting relationship with children over time that you can start to understand and discover that there is an awful lot more going on for that young person.”
Practitioners work with children aged between four and 17 in weekly sessions for up to a year, but it can be longer depending on the child’s needs.
Opening up about how the therapeutic sessions run both remotely and at the children’s charity’s Prestatyn base, Emma said: “Often children don’t have the words to express how they are feeling or what has happened to them.
"Sometimes they have been shut off from their emotions for such a long time because they are trying to self-preserve and they haven’t been able to address their trauma.
“We can help by teaching them more effective coping strategies to help them develop a healthy sense of self and a feeling of well-being.
"We use toys, sand trays, puppets and creative arts to enable children to express how they are feeling, and at the moment because of the pandemic we have an individual resource pack for each child.”
The life-changing work has not stopped during the pandemic and it is anticipated the need for the service will grow as disclosures are made following extensive periods at home for many children and young people.
“For me, one of the most worrying things is that lots of people still think that being at home is safe,” said Emma. “We are hearing this a lot around the pandemic – stay home and stay safe.
"Unfortunately staying home for some children doesn’t mean staying safe. We need to be looking at the emotional wellbeing of children and young people in our communities because we all have a responsibility to keep children safe.”
Even before the pandemic, research in the UK evidenced that one in 20 young people has been forced or persuaded to take part in sexual activities, often by someone they know.
Sometimes children won’t understand that what’s happened to them is sexual abuse. It isn’t always physical – it happens online too – and children may not realise it is wrong.
Children can be referred to the Letting the Future In programme via professionals as well as the Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC).
A Welsh Government spokesman said: “We are committed to working with safeguarding partners to do everything we can to prevent and tackle child sex abuse, in all its forms, and to support children who have been subjected to such abuse.
“Our national action plan sets out clear actions to prevent child sexual abuse, to protect children at risk and to support abused children. It was published in 2019 and actions are to be completed by 31 December 2021.
"The existing plan sets out the next steps which would then be taken, including considering evidence from a review of its implementation, in consultation with stakeholders, to decide on next steps.”
For more information about the Letting the Future In programme in North Wales contact northwales@nspcc.org.uk or 01745 772100.
Anyone concerned about a child can contact the NSPCC Helpline for advice on 0808 800 5000. Adult victims of non-recent sexual abuse can also get in touch for support.
Childline is available for young people on 0800 1111 or at www.childline.org.uk.
Tasmanian Premier Announces 3 Inquiries into
State Child Sexual Abuse
Peter Gutwein, Premier
I want to use my opening statement today to speak about a matter of great importance to all of us– the safety of our children.
The vast majority of people who work, or have worked, in our Government Agencies – in these positions of great trust – do the right thing and place children’s safety as their highest responsibility. Unfortunately, there have been occasions when that trust was breached.
My Government has taken decisive action and is progressing three investigations that have relevance to child sexual abuse. Each Department involved is responding to different historical issues and circumstances:
The Attorney-General, and the Minister for Health, implemented an independent investigation into the systems (including legislation, policies, practices and procedures) of the Tasmanian Health Service, Department of Health and other relevant Government Agencies in relation to the management of historical allegations of child sexual abuse particularly in the matter of deceased former nurse James Geoffrey Griffin;
The Minister for Education commissioned an independent inquiry to examine whether the legislation, policies, practices and procedures (‘systems’) utilised by the Department of Education now, operate in a way that minimises the risk of child sexual abuse within Tasmanian Government Schools; and
The Department of Communities became aware of historical allegations of abuse against current employees of the Ashley Youth Detention Centre through information provided to the State under the National Redress Scheme for people who have experienced institutional child sexual abuse (and / or through a common law negligence claim). This material identified issues with three staff who have been stood down pending investigation.
It’s very unfortunate that since these three separate bodies of inquiry have been instigated, on Friday last week I was briefed on further cases of historic allegations of child sexual abuse involving current Government employees.
I want to be very clear that the allegations are historical. They involve a teacher at a Northern school who has been stood down and charged; and a Statewide Mental Health services staff member who has been stood down subject to the outcome of criminal proceedings relating to an historic allegation that did not occur in the work environment.
Furthermore I expect that as more claims for redress are progressed there will be more shocking examples come to light.
It was expected that the National Redress Scheme established as a result of the Royal Commission could provide redress to up to 60,000 people nationally who are estimated to have been abused in institutions. It has been forecast that Tasmanian claims for redress could be around 2000 people of which around half are expected to relate to Tasmanian Government institutions.
Already more than 200 Tasmanian survivors of abuse have been offered payments of redress under the national scheme. Tasmanians must be aware and we should brace ourselves, that unfortunately we will see more examples of historic allegations of abuse relating to children come to light. This is the system working and we should welcome the fact that after so long a light is being shined on our unfortunate past.
I have great faith that our current processes and practices ensure higher safeguards and swifter action than was historically the case. Over a number of years significant systems have been implemented to protect our children and young people, for example in Tasmanian Government schools, including:
Introducing the Registration to Work with Vulnerable People Registration Process and requiring all people who work in the Department of Education to hold a valid registration.
Requiring teachers to be registered with the Teachers Registration Board, with teachers only gaining (and retaining) registration if they are of good character and fit to teach.
Introducing legislative amendments to child safety legislation that provides all Department of Education employees with mandatory reporting obligations.
Introducing a policy of reporting all allegations of inappropriate sexual activity with children and young people in Tasmanian Government schools to the Police, with staff under investigation being suspended from duty, pending the outcome of any investigation.
This is not the best possible outcome as each of the investigations are limited in scope. A Royal Commission would have been a better decision, but they are very expensive to run. Nevertheless, this is progress, even if somewhat limited.
There is more on this story on Mirage News.
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