By: Michelle Njeri
Sexual abuse of children is a major global public health and child rights issue. Although few countries have conducted population-based surveys on child sexual abuse, the magnitude of the problem in Africa and the developed world is alarming. Every year millions of young girls and boys are sexually abused. UNICEF says 1 in 10 girls under 20 have been forced into sexual act with up to a billion children aged 2 to 17 suffering physical, sexual or emotional violence or neglect in the past year.
In settings with a generalized HIV epidemic, child sexual abuse is associated with HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, unwanted pregnancy and physical injury. They suffer post-traumatic stress disorder and vulnerability.
In 2010, Kenya conducted the first Violence against Children survey. The examination described the perpetrators and context of different types of Child Sexual Abuse among respondents aged 13–17 years and 18–24 years and discuss implications for Child Sexual Abuse prevention and response in Kenya.
Children deserve protection from sexual exploiters. Victims should be taken care of and their cyber and physical abusers severely punished.
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