Professionals 'must not shirk from reporting child abuse cases'

Rosanne Zammit

The chief executive for the Foundation for Social Welfare Services, Joe Gerada, has urged professionals not to shirk from reporting child abuse cases, because the safety of children comes before confidentiality.

He also called for a Children’s Act that would update and consolidate legislation on children, also improving their protection.

Mr Gerada was replying to questions after many people complained last week that a sentence given in a rape case was too lenient.

Mr Gerada said he was in favour of a sex offenders register, adding that it should not be public but accessible to social agencies. He cautioned however against a false sense of security. In many cases, children were abused by people who would not be in the register and were the people closest to them, he said.

(see video clip)

Comments

Olina Tretyak (on 13/10/08)

@D.Galea
I did not get the point why R.F.I.D. chips should be implanted in our children. Could you kindly explain your idea, how tagging our children would be related to sex offenders?
What kids suppose to do with such implants?... to pay for bus according to their age exactly?

D.Galea (on 13/10/08)

@P Borg

Well no wonder since that's exactly where we're heading!! We're simply being manipulated in these attitudes so that when the right time comes we can be presented with a solution in the form of R.F.I.D. chip implants in our children. Science fiction? It's already in existence & started to be implemented in some places (I invite you to do your research). Mark my words, it's only of when not if & we hell better say NO to it when it's proposed to us for the sake of our kids.

P.S. This chip is basically same we've just accepted to have in our passports, & this is only the start. Have your data scanned while walking around without your own knowledge!

P Borg (on 13/10/08)

If this list be made public, then we'll encourage a vigilante society, and the value of rehabilitation through prison sentence has no value. We may as well make this list for all kinds of offenders, giving them no real chance to re-integrate into society. If your analyze statistics most of these crimes occur by close family members rather than random deviants. This kind of fear mongering reminds one of George Orwell's 1984.

deb bugeja (on 13/10/08)

Sex offender list should be made public and not restricted to social agencies only. After all abuses are made to the public mostly to minors who are innocent and cannot defend themselves. the parents have every right to know if their children are coming in contact with these kind of people.