Hello All... I am trying to patch a reply here that addresses several themes that are starting to emerge. May I start by giving you a link to www.barnardos.org.uk that will inform you of the current position in regard to minors who are abused through prostitution. May I also make the point that I work for this chartiy but anything I speak of personally here on the list is not a statement made on behalf of Barnardo's. I am a fundraiser for them and spend my time calling on schools colleges and universities trying to get the students to raise money for us. We need 2.2 million pounds a WEEK to support the 90,000 (YES NINETY THOUSAND) disadvantaged and vulenrable children who live in fear and poverty, are subjected to mental, physical and sexual abuse, who live with alcohol and drug dependant parents, or whose lives are lived on sink-hole estates where expectations are nil and those who rise above their backgrounds are treated with derision, or suspicion and become the target of the disaffected.... We also help unaccompanied refugee children, and also refugee families (regardless of the reasons they have come here)
SArah, you raise the issue of Childrens Rights... THE UK has a Childrens Rights Act that covers many many aspects of children's lives. It is a comprehensive Act that also entitles children to legal representation and can be permitted(for example) to sue negligent health authorities who bungle their births and leave them with long term disabilities. Abuse through Prostitution......Yes Colin, you are right. The law as it stands deems that an under age child who is involved in selling sex (and this is never something they decide to do) is the one who is targetted for prosecution. When caught they are charged with being a "common prostitute"..... Some of these girls are only 12....They are the visible target on the street, they live in fear of their "pimp" so won't divulge who controls them, and the "punter" is usually cautioned for "kerb crawling". Barnardo's are campaigning to have those who use children for immoral earnings and those who pay for sex with children to be classed as sex offenders and prosecuted as such with the full weight of the law in that respect brought to bear on them (and that in many cases ends up being a 2 year sentance with 10 years on the sex offences register........derisory isn't it......) However a lot a child prostitution is HIDDEN. There are whole circles of adults who abuse children and pay the "controlling adult"...often a parent.....for sex with them. It is a sorry tale which has its roots in "cycles of abuse".. the children, if not helped over this point (and they are of little interest to these type of adults once they grow up) do have very altereted perception of what constitutes a healthy reatlionship and their lives are indeed blighted and twisted by the corruption of their understanding of "loving parents or caring adults"... It is an enormous subject. You are right, Laurent and Murphy/BOB and Colin that those who are abused do not always go on to abuse. Those who do abuse children are, for the main part (about 89%) however, people who have had some form of abuse visited on them that stunts their ability to form adult relationships and they are "more comfortable" with children.......by whom they do not feel threatened. Their own abusing behaviour may often start when they are, themselves, children and we( Barnardo's) have several projects that work with these children and their families to try and avert the abuse continuing.... this is long arduous work and is a question of allowing the family to heal and to deal with its own skeletons and bad memories from the past. All the counsellors are in constant couselling themselves to avoid the build up of stress..and some of the case histories are horrendous.. But how do we, as nations expect to deal with our own separate tragedy of child abuse, and it IS a tragedy for all involved? International agencies deal with the underdeveloped nations and the problems caused by WAR (and we are heading into another one in what is an oil rich, but poverty ridden country) famine, economic sanction and the fall of paternal stewardship by countries such as the UK (I am not defending, nor expounding colonialism here, but the human rights issues in ex-colonies beggar belief.....that is an entirely different theme to discuss). The UK has an overstretched and understaffed Social Services. We have the highest teenage pregnancy rate in Europe, Our Police force is in dissarray, our National Health service has more administrators than nursing and doctoring staff, our education system is overburdened by petty beurocracy so that 10% of teaching time is taken up with having to write reports on anything the government wants them to produce as "MEASURES".....Oh the list of things that are wrong here is endless...... and Charities such as Barnardo's (and several other admirable ones) have to be relied upon to look after the children and young people whose parents are unable to cope. Sometimes I am ashamed to call my self English as this country has become a cess pool where money is king and only those who HAVE are listened to. Is it any wonder that for successive generations children have had a hard time, and they become struggling parents... when there is so much that is wrong? Society is sick and falling apart and all we ever seem to do is stand by and moan.. What I like about my day job is I know my efforts do make a difference to the lives of the kids we help. I feel I am indeed lucky on that score....but what makes me shudder is that there are thousands more out there just waiting to be heard...that I cannot deal with..... How we deal with the mess that our country and every other developed country is a subject for wideranging debate and will spring up fors and againsts depending on which side of the line you are. I think this is what bugs me about political and religious debate...... it is all about making the particular point rather than actually achieving anything. Children matter, how we look after them matters, deciding to have children should not be a lifestyle choice but a matter of the deepest consideration. In the discussion of Joni's own painful decision to have Kilauren adopted it seemed to degenerate into semantics... what was at issue was the future of a child... "Little Green, have a happy ending..". and is that not what we all want for our children? A happy ending...... Lucy
