Currently, Mexico is the country in Latin America with the highest number of sexual crimes, which has led its authorities to promote strategies to eradicate cases of child sexual abuse. Such is the case of the “Do not shut up” (No te calles) campaign, launched in 2018 by the National Population Council, which tells how abuse can occur closer than we imagine.
Do not shut up about abuse cases.
In 2018, a campaign was launched in which a girl told her mother about the abuses she suffered from her stepfather, to which the mother reacted by rejecting her and calling her a liar. In many cases, in addition to being sexually abused, girls between the ages of 9 and 14 become pregnant with close people or their own family.
It is estimated that these early pregnancies are increasing, according to studies conducted by the competent authorities. Although it is a high number (11,704 cases), this does not reflect the amount of sexual abuse that occurs in the Aztec country, a situation that is repeated globally.
Although there are thousands of dozens of previous inquiries and investigations for the crime of sexual abuse, there are only 43 registered cases of sexual abuse against girls and boys ages 9 to 14; in one year only one complaint was registered for this crime.
The silence that steals a childhood
Some NGOs dedicated to the defense of children and the eradication of child sexual abuse consider that violence begins when the State allows for a social environment in which girls and boys suffer a violation, so they request stronger policies from the authorities to eradicate this crime.
Statistics from organizations, such as those from the play Secret Survivors, indicate that one in three children in the country has suffered from sexual abuse and 90% of abusers are relatives or close friends. The founder of this work was a victim of sexual abuse by an uncle from 4 to 13 years of age and reports that this trauma affected her in all aspects of her life.
Besides, she said that a rape steals your childhood and makes you feel like an adult, affecting your entire system, both the reproductive and your sexual life in the future.
One of the most worrying implications is the early pregnancies of girls and adolescents between 10 and 14 years. These pregnancies became the sixth leading cause of death in girls under 14 years old, presenting complications such as eclampsia, anemia, postpartum hemorrhage and infections in the uterus.
When you have a child you have all the children in the world
It is difficult to think that a person who must care for and ensure the integrity of those he loves is capable of transgressing and breaking the trust placed in him and using it to perform an atrocious act.
Pedophilia is perhaps one of the greatest aberrations that occur in humanity. Adults, as part of society, must maintain a balance in the detection of the signals emitted by children, without entering into a collective psychosis and falling into overprotection.
To protect them, two central axes must be kept in mind to prevent this crime in time:
- Be able to read and detect the signals that children show when a situation of sexual abuse begins.
- Educate children and empower them so they can ask for help, break up evil covenants and say no to abusers, what makes it important to impart a good comprehensive sexual education to children.
In addition to teaching them to say no, children must also be believed what they tell. It is important that we trust them when they tell us something that happened that they think is bad. Abused children face situations they do not understand and may feel guilty about what happens even if they are not responsible for what happens to them and it is a feeling that will remain with them for the rest of their lives.
