The COVID-19 pandemic has created a devastating impact all over the world, affecting millions along with taking away precious lives since the past year. Till today, containing this pandemic phenomenon is still considered a challenge due to the mutation of this virus.
With all this drama happening around the world, it is important to understand the fact that the ones affected most due to this pandemic are the children. First, they had to stay locked up in their homes for months, and when they finally got out, accepting a new normal has been quite a challenge for their tiny minds.
Here is another sad news, accepting the new normal may not be much of a problem during this pandemic as much as the risk of increased violence against the kids which includes gender-based violence, maltreatment, and sexual exploitation.
How is Violence Against Children Connected to COVID?
Here’s the thing, a child already living in an abusive family, took school and hanging out with friends to be an escape from the everyday family feudes. With the lockdown still holding up, the schools remain closed resuming their classes online and the restriction for children especially from going outside of the homes makes them more prone to being targets of violence.
How is it Affecting The Children?
The study has it that around one third of the global population is on lockdown due to the pandemic and the closure of schools impacted around 1.5 billion children. Children living in dysfunctional or violent families have to go through stress, anxiety, depression, isolation, and movement restrictions. Apparently, they have nowhere to go or hide. Even with online communities maintaining the learning of many children, this has also increased the risk of sexual exploitation and cyberbullying.
All this is aggravating because of the lack of access to teachers, school friends, social workers, or even school councillors. In other words, due to lockdown, they basically have no one to talk to about what all they are going through. A phone call or an email can not explain the depth of the situation as much as a face-to-face conversation does.
Failure to protect them could increase the risk of substance abuse (drugs and alcohol) and worst of all suicide.
Who is More Exposed To Child Violence?
The most affected children are:
- Refugees
- Internally displaced children
- Migrants
- Children who are deprived of liberty
- Children living in abusive families
- Children living without any parental care
- Children with disabilities
- Living in urban slums and streets
The Role Of The Government And The Community?
The government can respond to such a situation by ensuring response plans and COVID-19 preventions in order to protect the children from abuse, neglect, and violence. Child protection and child care services should be encouraged to sprout in the country.
As a responsible citizen, if you know a child being a target of abuse or violence, immediately inform the childcare solicitors in Manchester. They specialize in dealing with sensitive and complex proceedings regarding childcare.
Together we can help these children dream and aim for a better tomorrow.
