Child
Abuse
To me, child abuse is something that is not really talked
about. It is keep hidden from society and brushed off as punishment to the
child. I consider child abuse as any form of neglect to a child whether psychical
or mental to which harms the child in any way.
The question as to if spanking a child is consider
abuse, to me is a fine line. Personal I was spank as a child as a form of
punishment. Hence, I feel that spanking should be used in a way
to which can’t cause harm to the child. Therefore, I feel that spanking, since
in can and does cause harm to the child should not be used and if used then
should be monitored in the extent of the force of the spanking.
Another question in punishment of a child from a
parent is, when should punishment become a public concern? To me, it depends on
the situation. If a child becomes upset over an item in a store that the parent
will not allow them to have, then the parent, in my opinion, should take the child
perhaps in the bathroom and talk to the child. Maybe give them a three strikes
and you will be washing the dishes type of punishment. However, if the parent
in public turns around and hits that child in a forceful manner as to cause pain
then what is the parents doing at home. An example of this is a story a recent
friend told me from her job. She was working in the front desk and witnessed a
parent upper cutting a child, their child in the face. When she approached the
parents and asked why they just hitting the child the parent’s responses was
that she had autism and she was being bad. My friend then called the police and
reported the instanced. This example in my opinion is an unacceptable form of
punishment and should be reported.
Sexual
Victimization
Child pornography is an industry in which is hard to
stop. In the state of Washington child pornography is taken very seriously and
all over the United States. For instances, if you are caught being involved in
the act of child pornography then, “a first time offender convicted of
producing child pornography under 18 U.S.C. § 2251, face fines and a statutory
minimum of 15 years to 30 years maximum in prison”.
With new technology comes new challenges and sexting
is the “new craze”. However, at least in Washington there are no laws in concerns
with sexting. Even the definition is new. Wikipedia says that sexting is “the
act of sending sexually explicit messages and/or photographs, primarily between
mobile phones”. So by this definition, I feel sexting should have a form of
punishment on both the victim and offender. What the punishment should be in a
grey area but could be looked at in the context in which the act took place and
forming the punishment on the severity of the act.
In
local Washington News on child victimization
A 36 year old man, Jeffrey R. Smiley, was arrested in
2009 on charges of molesting a 7-year old girl. Detectives found more incriminating
evidence when the searched the area where Smiley had molested the young girl of
sexual paraphernalia. He was arrested before his trial on validating is probation.
Reading about Smiley made me feel like more should be done to protect children
in society and educate parents and communities on child victimization.
Media
Aspect
One media aspect exposing child victimization is a
documentary titled “the Candy Shop”. The documentary exposes the child sex trafficking
going on in Atlanta Georgia and the realities of it. It is a two part film in
which the first one is clever way to show how society takes the realization of
this “Candy Shop” industry and the second part is exposing the sex industry of
child sex trafficking in Atlanta.
The second media aspect I found is a short
documentary on child abuse called “Out of Darkness, Into Light: Child Sexual
Abuse. It is a documentary on three survives of child abuse and work to raise
awareness of child abuse.
