Child protection
Child protection is the safeguarding of children from violence, exploitation, abuse, abandonment, and neglect. It involves identifying signs of potential harm. This includes responding to allegations or suspicions of abuse, providing support and services to protect children, and holding those who have harmed them accountable.
The primary goal of child protection is to ensure that all children are safe and free from harm or danger. Child protection also works to prevent future harm by creating policies and systems that identify and respond to risks before they lead to harm.
In order to achieve these goals, research suggests that child protection services should be provided in a holistic way. This means taking into account the social, economic, cultural, psychological, and environmental factors that can contribute to the risk of harm for individual children and their families. Collaboration across sectors and disciplines to create a comprehensive system of support and safety for children is required.
It is the responsibility of individuals, organizations, and governments to ensure that children are protected from harm and their rights are respected. This includes providing a safe environment for children to grow and develop, protecting them from physical, emotional and sexual abuse, and ensuring they have access to education, healthcare, and resources to fulfill their basic needs.
Child protection systems are a set of services, usually government-run, designed to protect children and young people who are underage and to encourage family stability. UNICEF defines a 'child protection system' as: Under Article 19 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, a 'child protection system' provides for the protection of children in and out of the home. One of the ways this can be enabled is through the provision of quality education, the fourth of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, in addition to other child protection systems. Some literature argues that child protection begins at conception; even how the conception took place can affect the child's development.
Safeguards against
Child labor
Child labor is the practice of having children engage in economic activity on a part-time or full-time basis. The practice is harmful to their physical and mental development. It is considered to be a form of exploitation and is illegal in many countries.Due to economic reasons, especially in poor countries, children are forced to work in order to survive. Child labor often happens in difficult conditions, which are dangerous and impairable to the education of future citizens, and increase vulnerability to adults. It is hard to know exactly the age and number of children who are affected. At least 152 million children under five years of age worked in 2016, but the figure is underestimated because domestic labor is not counted. The actual statistics cannot be counted exactly due to the many cases of child labor going unseen.
Endangerment
Child endangerment is the act of placing a child in a situation that neglects their health or life. Child endangerment can cause many negative physical and mental effects. This can stem from abusive parental care, child neglect, and a multitude of other reasons.Infanticide (child murder)
Infanticide is the intentional killing of infants and young children. This practice has been documented throughout history and still occurs in certain cultures today, usually as a result of poverty and/or other social pressures. Infanticide can be carried out by parents, relatives, or strangers and is often seen as a form of gender-based violence, since female babies are more likely to be killed than male ones. In some cases, infanticide may also be used to conceal evidence of incest or rape. It is most commonly practiced in cultures where there is a preference for male children, or where resources are scarce.In some countries, children can be imprisoned for common crimes. In some countries, like Iran or China, criminals can even be sentenced to capital punishment for crimes committed while they were children. In contexts where military use of children is made, they also risk becoming prisoners of war. Other children are forced into prostitution, exploited by adults for illegal traffic in children, or endangered by poverty and hunger. Infanticide today continues at a much higher rate in areas of extremely high poverty and overpopulation, such as parts of China and India. Female infants, then and even now, are particularly vulnerable, which is a factor in sex-selective infanticide.
Child abuse
Many children who come to the attention of the child welfare system do so because of situations which are often referred to as child abuse. Abuse typically involves abuse of power, or exercising power for an unintended purpose. This includes willful neglect, knowingly not exercising a power for the purpose for which it was intended. This is why child abuse is defined as taking advantage of a position of trust having been invested with powers.- Physical abuse is physical assault or battery on the child. Whilst an assault has some adverse consequence that the victim did not agree to the victim agrees to the consequences of battery but the agreement is fraudulent in some way. Physical abuse is also harassment, a physical presence intended to provoke fear.
- Child sexual abuse is sexual assault or battery on the child. The vast majority of physical assaults are a reaction to a situation involving a specific victim. Sexual assault is predominantly perpetrator gratification against any suitable target. Sexual abuse covers the range of direct and indirect assaults and the means of facilitation such as stalking and internet offenses.
- Child neglect is defined as failure to take adequate measures to safeguard a child from harm, and gross negligence in providing for a child's basic needs. Needs are the actions to be taken to protect and provide for the child. Safeguarding is the duty of a person given the powers of responsibility for the child to take the necessary measures to protect the child. If a child is physically or sexually abused, then there is an person responsible for the assault and a person responsible for failing to protect them from the assault. In some cases, they may be the same.
- Psychological abuse is when meeting the child's needs by taking the necessary steps to protect and provide for the child the child's wishes and feelings must be considered when deciding on delivery of the provision that best serves the child's needs. Willfully failing to provide in accordance with the child's wishes and feelings whilst it is in the child's best interests is emotional abuse or negligently is emotional neglect.
Parental responsibility
Actions typically include services aimed at supporting at-risk families so they can remain intact to safeguard and promote the welfare of the child, investigation of alleged child abuse and, if necessary, assuming parental responsibility by foster care and adoption services.
Child maltreatment
Child maltreatment refers to any type of harsh treatment or abuse which results in harm to a helpless child. Examples of child maltreatment include physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, exploitation, deprivation and neglect. The long-term impact of abuse on victims often includes physical injury, psychological and behavioral harm, and can potentially be carried across generations.Caregiver maltreatment of children is a global problem that can occur in adoption programs, regardless of social status and in cases of discrimination and early or unwanted pregnancy. Adopted children may be mistreated more than biological children. Additionally, children may suffer maltreatment due to their social status, and discrimination based on skin color has also been documented as a factor in child maltreatment. Unwanted pregnancies can also increase tension in the household, potentially leading to the mistreatment of a child.
Various services exist to address or prevent child maltreatment; these services can be provided by businesses or by government agencies. Where these services encounter cases of maltreatment, the state then creates a supportive family environment for the abused child. This entails the regulation of both public and private entities providing care for children and families.
Child maltreatment can even occur in cases where state or other guardians take responsibility for a child's welfare.
Other
A 2014 European Commission survey on child protection systems listed the following categories of children needing help:- Child victims of bullying or cyber-bullying
- Child victims of female genital mutilation or forced marriage
- Child victims of neglect or abuse
- Child victims of sexual abuse/exploitation
- Child victims of trafficking
- Children affected by custody disputes, including parental child abduction
- Children belonging to minority ethnic groups, e.g. Roma
- Children left behind
- Children in a situation of migration
- Children in judicial proceedings
- Children in or at risk of poverty
- Children in police custody or detention
- Children of parents in prison or custody
- Children with disabilities
- Children without parental care/in alternative care
- Children who are not in compulsory education or training or working children below the legal age for work
- Missing children
- Unaccompanied children in a situation of migration