Minister of Mass Media and Information Dullas Alahapperuma emphasizes that one child abuse occurs per every hour in the country.
The Minister states that the National Child Protection Authority has received 10,713 child abuse complaints so far this year.
The Minister said this while participating in a workshop held at the Government Information Department to educate the media on the ethics to be followed by the media in reporting on children.
The relationship between the media and children should be similar to the teacher-student relationship, but now it has become like a prey-child relationship.
“The number of complaints received during these 333 days and 11 months, excluding age limits, was 10,713. There are three serious issues involved. One, 1,632 of them are under 5 years of age. 2,626 are between ages 6-10. ‘Kirisappayo’ is what we call for children of age less than 5 years in our villages. The total of these two is 4,258. That is exactly 40% of 10713 are the children under the age of 10, ”he said.
