High Sound children has appealed to the government to adopt media literacy as a tool, among others, in the fight against child abuse.
The child rights organization believes this will be crucial in empowering children to speak out against any infringement on their rights.
High Sound children’s appeal follows a joint analysis by the Ministry of Gender, Labor, and Social Development and the Police on trends in child-related offenses in Uganda.
This analysis aimed to examine changes in offense rates, types of offenses, regional variations, and the number of perpetrators, among other factors.
The analysis utilized data from the Uganda Police Force annual crime reports from 2020 to 2023, highlighting a growing concern for offenses against children in the country. Among other findings, the analysis revealed a total of 54,276 reported cases of defilement during this period, with 4,726 of these cases involving children below 8 years, representing 8.7%.
In 2020, there were 14,220 cases reported to the police nationwide, followed by 14,570 cases in 2021, 12,580 cases in 2022, and 12,771 cases in 2023.
The Communications Manager in charge of Programs at High Sound Organization, Mr. Ivan Ssenabulya urges the government and other stakeholders to adopt media literacy as a tool to address defilement, torture, online sexual abuse, and other child rights violations.
“As an organization we have developed a media literacy tool with standardized content for media use for children, and we are yet to engage government on the same.” Mr Ssenabulya revealed.
Mr. Ssenabulya added that through these efforts, they believe children in learning centres and at home can be empowered to speak out, understanding what is good or bad for them.
He further revealed that through media literacy, children can discern the right content to watch, listen to, or read.
The alarming data shows that persons with HIV are among the most frequent perpetrators, alongside guardians, parents, teachers, students, and pupils.
It also highlights defilement cases involving boys, with 326 out of a total of 13,144 victims in 2023 being male juveniles.
Tororo District topped the list with the highest number of defilement cases, Luweero had the highest cases of child torture, Kween reported the highest cases of child desertion, and Lira City had the highest cases of child neglect.
A Writer is a Veteran Journalist
English