FIVE years after it was recommended by the Ferns Inquiry, the Office for the Minister of Children still hasn’t launched a publicity campaign informing children that they aren’t responsible for sexual abuse.Children’s charities strongly support such a campaign believing that it would help disempower abuse perpetrators.
In 2005, the Ferns Report urged the then Department of Health and Children to "launch and repeat from time to time a nationwide publicity campaign" focussing on how children must never regard themselves as responsible for abuse and warning them that "abuse is perpetrated by persons in every walk of life".
The inquiry also recommended that the campaign emphasise the serious and lasting psychological damage caused by child sex abuse.
However, no such campaign has been launched even though industry sources believe a radio and TV campaign could cost as little as €1 million.
Clinical director at the CARI Foundation which provides therapy to abused children, Dr Niall Muldoon said "such a campaign would be hugely effective as it would serve to disempower perpetrators by empowering children".
"There is a long-term apathy to protecting children. It is all about fighting emergencies and reacting to emergencies rather than preventing tragedies," he said.
A spokesman for the Office for the Minister of Children (OMC) last night said three years ago, they launched a Parents Who Listen Protect campaign on the importance of listening to children.
"A second part of this is the distribution of a booklet entitled Worried about a Child that is designed for adults a concerned for a child," she said.
However, CARI and Ferns abuse victim and campaigner for victims’ right, Colm O’Gorman said this campaign did not meet the inquiry’s recommendations .
"They haven’t launched a public information campaign in the way that they should have. There should have been a wider engagement, an engagement with young people directly. This document was aimed at parents, but children must be engaged with in their own right in a way that is appropriate to their age," he said.
Dr Muldoon said he believed the OMC had plans to launch a sexual abuse awareness campaign but that the plans are gathering dust.
"My understanding was that the second part of the campaign would be aimed at children and particularly around the area of sexual abuse. The second part of the campaign was never launched. I believe that the work was done on it but it’s just sitting in an office somewhere. Such a campaign would be hugely effective," he said.
"Unfortunately, there are a huge amount of recommendations still not followed up from the Ferns Report, never mind thinking about the more recent recommendations from the Murphy and Ryan Report recommendations," he said.
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