Recently China state TV released a six-episode documentary titled "Caring for Tomorrow", focusing on the varieties of dilemma Chinese youth adolescents face, including abandonment, sexual abuse, enduring violence, and deception.
The first episode features child sexual abuse, listing out horrible statistics as an urgent reminder of providing sex education in the country.
The data from the Supreme People's Court of PRC showed that 10,782 children's sexual abuse cases were heard from 2013 to 2016 , according to the WeChat account of "the Law and Society Channel of CCTV". It meant that at least seven children suffered sexual abuse per day. However, the real situation might be far more severe and common than people believe.
The causes included the absence of family education, imperfect legal system, and particularly, a lack of sex education.
The figures meant that most Chinese teenagers didn't receive formal sexual education, which led to their failure to watch out of and reject sudden harassment.
The abuse caused irreversible effects to children, physical discomfort, pain, and moreover, mental depression and despair. But media held that child molestation was still a subtle issue, since the traditional social prejudices prevented sufferers from disclosures of such things. In addition, the program called on the society to say no to child sexual abuse.
The documentary shared 12 real cases among juveniles concerning sexual abuse, school safety, and children living in difficulty, interpreting the way forward of youth protection and submitting the annual report of the protection of Chinese teenagers' rights and interests.
- Translated by Karen Luo
