UNITED NATIONAL
UN News Centre
4 September 2014 – Violence against children is universal – so prevalent and deeply ingrained in societies it is often unseen and accepted as the norm – according to new, unprecedented data presented by the United Nations today.
A new UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report, Hidden in plain sight: A statistical analysis of violence against children, draws on data from 190 countries in order to shed light on a largely undocumented issue.
The report found that about two thirds of children worldwide between ages 2 and 14 (almost 1 billion) are subjected to physical punishment by their caregivers on a regular basis. And yet, only about one third of adults worldwide believe that physical punishment of some kind is necessary to properly raise or educate a child.
Susan Bissell, the Chief of Child Protection at UNICEF said in interview that the data essentials show that “if there is one common aspect of human society right now, it is the fact that tremendous violence is committed against children.”
“It is important that we don’t simply go away with the message that violence is everywhere, we live in a horrific world; but in fact to say, there are tried, true, measured, evaluated solutions,” she said.
While the data focuses on physical, emotional and sexual violence in settings children should feel safe; their communities, schools and homes, there is a fundamental limitation to document violence against children.
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