Two characters – Kiko and The Hand – will help parents and educators to discuss the issue of sexual abuse and how to seek help in such a case with children in a manner adjusted to their age. Informative brochures will be distributed to all the nursery schools of the country within the nationwide campaign “Hand here cannot be put”, which is carried out by the National Center for Child Abuse Prevention in partnership with the Ministry of Education, IPN reports.

In the conference held to launch the campaign, the Center’s head Daniela Samboteanu said most of the children who are subject to sexual abuse are of preschool age. The most serious fact is that 80% of the abusers are persons close to the environment of children.

The Ministry of the Interior’s statistics show that the number of crimes against children over the last five years rose by 65%, with the sexual abuses representing 25% of these offenses. Daniela Samboteanu said the abuses can be prevented if the children are taught to tell their parents when they are intimidated by somebody. There are cases when the children are sexually abused for 2-3 years because they do not have whom to tell what’s happening to them.

IMAS director Doru Petrutsi said that two studies carried out in partnership with the National Center for Child Abuse Prevention show that only 4 in 10 parents discuss the prevention of sexual abuse with their children, with 80% of these encountering difficulties during such discussions. The lack of information about how to explain such things to a child make the parents postpone the discussions with their children, until these turn 8-9. In most of the cases, the discussion is aimed at making the child fear foreign, violent persons.