The Taiwan Fund for Children and Families on Wednesday called for greater awareness of child abuse as it presented the results of a study on teenagers’ perception of abuse.
The survey showed that 66.4 percent of respondents between 12 and 18 years said that they would worry that seeking help after being physically punished by a person who has authority over them would put those they seek help from at risk.
It also showed that 48.4 percent said that they would forgive a person if they apologized after physically punishing them.
Last year, parents — including foster parents — committed 47.1 percent of all recorded child abuses in the nation, the Fund said, citing Ministry of Health and Welfare data.
The data showed that 2.8 percent of abusers were grandparents, 3.3 percent were other relatives, 0.6 percent were teachers and 0.2 percent were babysitters, the fund said.
Being routinely physically punished might affect a child’s emotional development and cause trauma, even if the abuser apologizes, the fund said.
Children who tend to apologize to their abusers or forgive their abusers might be in need of attention from other people to whom they are emotionally close, it said, adding that people who find out about the abuse of a child should report the case.
Neither the abuser, the victim, nor bystanders should simply say “sorry” in situations where a child’s safety is at risk, the fund said.
Fund chief executive officer Betty Ho (何素秋) said that it is upsetting to see the number of child abuse cases rising even while Taiwan’s birthrate is declining.
Child protection must be taken seriously, she said, adding that the fund has since 2013 marked “child protection day” every year on April 28.
The fund has invited celebrities to decorate medical masks with the slogan “No More Sorry,” which is this year’s theme for child protection day, Ho said, adding that it has also created filters for Facebook and Instagram bearing the slogan.
This was part of a fundraising campaign for its “Kids First” program, which serves children who have been victims of abuse, the fund said.
The survey was conducted through an online questionnaire from March 3 to March 19, it said.
The survey received 6,492 valid responses and has a margin of error of 1.09 percentage points.
CAUTION: Based on intelligence from the nation’s security agencies, MOFA has cautioned Taiwanese travelers about heightened safety risks in China-friendly countries The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday urged Taiwanese to be aware of their safety when traveling abroad, especially in countries that are friendly to China. China in June last year issued 22 guidelines that allow its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death so-called “diehard” Taiwanese independence activists, even though Chinese courts have no jurisdiction in Taiwan. Late last month, a senior Chinese official gave closed-door instructions to state security units to implement the guidelines in countries friendly to China, a government memo and a senior Taiwan security official said, based on information gathered by Taiwan’s intelligence agency. The
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said yesterday that it is looking to hire 8,000 people this year, at a time when the tech giant is expanding production capacity to maintain its lead over competitors. To attract talent, TSMC would launch a large-scale recruitment campaign on campuses across Taiwan, where a newly recruited engineer with a master’s degree could expect to receive an average salary of NT$2.2 million (US$60,912), which is much higher than the 2023 national average of NT$709,000 for those in the same category, according to government statistics. TSMC, which accounted for more than 60 percent
Tung Tzu-hsien (童子賢), a Taiwanese businessman and deputy convener of the nation’s National Climate Change Committee, said yesterday that “electrical power is national power” and nuclear energy is “very important to Taiwan.” Tung made the remarks, suggesting that his views do not align with the country’s current official policy of phasing out nuclear energy, at a forum organized by the Taiwan People’s Party titled “Challenges and Prospects of Taiwan’s AI Industry and Energy Policy.” “Taiwan is currently pursuing industries with high added- value and is developing vigorously, and this all requires electricity,” said the chairman
RSS