Child Abuse​—The Spin-off Epidemic

CONSTANT obsession with sex and more sex leads to more abnormal cravings. One of the most depraved practices crawling into view is sexual abuse of children. How widespread is this? No one really knows, but a 1982 report on child abuse in the United States estimates that at least 1.5 million cases go unreported or unbelieved.

Sexual abuse of children can be anything from indecent exposure to rape. One of its uglier forms is child pornography. Children are photographed in sexually explicit poses, sometimes of unimaginable depravity, and the photographs are sold to pedophiles, morally sick individuals who find children sexually attractive.

Another aspect of this spin-off epidemic is the problem of incest. “As recently as 15 years ago, experts claimed that incest . . . occurred in only one out of a million families,” Reader’s Digest reported in January 1981. “Now some professionals believe the actual incidence could be as high as one in a hundred.”

Are you horrified even to contemplate the sexual use of children? Not everyone shares your feelings. The official publication of the Sex Information and Education Council of the United States has suggested that incest with the children at home might be better than so much teenage fornication outside the home!

In Los Angeles there exists the Rene Guyon Society, reportedly made up of doctors, lawyers and other men and women in respected, influential positions, whose members believe that young children should experience sex. The group’s slogan is, “Sex by age eight, or it’s too late.” This group is reported as using child pornography to stimulate youngsters.

Then there is NAMBLA (North American Man-Boy Love Association), a homosexual group interested in promoting “love” between men and boys. Such ideas of “love” remind one of the Bible proverb: “The mercies of the wicked ones are cruel.” (Proverbs 12:10) Many children today suffer from such cruelty.

And while the sexual abuse of children gets worse, other kinds of abuse are not lagging behind. As never before, children are tasting parental violence. Homicide is one of the five leading causes of death among children in the United States. According to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control), in recent years such homicides have risen at a shocking rate and one third of these are at the hands of parents or stepparents. In most cases the 1- to 17-year-olds are killed with guns, knives or by strangulation.