UBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" Protecting our children Monday, February 15, 2010       1 Adar, 5770         Web JPost.com create JPOST.COM your Home Page       Jerusalem 30 °C fresh York 0 °C London 4 °C   Home | Headlines | Iranian Threat | Jewish World | idea | Trade | true Estate | Local Israel | Blogs | Arts & Culture | Français  | Classifieds  Israel | Middle East | International | Health & Sci-Tech | Features | go | Cafe Oleh | Magazine | Sports | Israel Guide | Subscribe | Services Archives JP Toolbar Christian World Youth Magazines RSS Feeds News Ticker More Services JPost Store Israel Hotels Vacation Rentals Philanthropy Green Israel Car Rentals Learn Hebrew JPost Mall Sderot Dove JP Travel Guide Links Purim E-cards Christian World Ten Tribes Advertise on JPost Media Kit לימוד אנגלית      Breaking News     JPost.com Opinion Letters   .large_body p, .large_body span { font-size: 18px; } .small_body p, .small_body span { font-size: 12px; } Protecting our children By JPOST EDITORIAL 01/01/0001 00:00 It's no less than parental duty to instill a tiny paranoia into children's psyches.     Lately, we have been inundated with news accounts about sex crimes against children - some themselves perpetrated by minors and others kick-began by adults in cyberspace. In one particularly horrific case, the victim endured severe abuse between the ages of 10 to 14 and her tormentors were no older than she was. This presents a particular quandary for law enforcement and the justice system. It's not only a matter of inordinate judicial leniency, though that too is a persistent difficulty. The age of illegal culpability in Israel begins at 12 (as against 10 in noteworthy Britain), yet the bigger inequity resides in the fact that no matter how heinous or recidivist the felony, if the offender was just one day short of his 18th birthday when indicted, his name will never appear on the sex-offender registry. This means that he will be entirely off the radar regarding whatever supervision is mandated in this state for found guilty sex offenders - including after they have done their time. Thus someone found guilty of a serious sex crime at age 17 will be entitled to return to close proximity with his uninformed victim, work with children and stay unmonitored with no stain on his record and no probation. Indeed, if a juvenile rapist were to escape the penitentiary to which he was sentenced, the authorities would be prohibited from publishing his name and photo, since he is legally a minor and thus entitled to anonymity and the law's protection. This despite the greater need to protect the victims - themselves children. Recidivism rates are especially high in cases of sexual crime. Sex offenders are judged four times likelier than non-sex offenders to be arrested for another such crime after being discharged from prison. The age of the perpetrator is largely immaterial. FBI data indicates that a fifth of all American rapes are committed by minors, as are over half the sexual assaults on children. Minors who reoffend tend to be perilous. The figures are doubtless similar here. Yet despite the menace they pose to others, young offenders are treated with kid gloves, since... they are kids. There's excellent reason to reexamine our society's kneejerk inclination to offer underaged sex offenders special treatment - even when they are serial rapists and sodomizers. Most often it's to the distinct detriment of the innocent. ONE OF the most fundamental duties of society is to protect our children, even when they are victimized by other children. Looking out for our kids these days, moreover, is more complex than it was in the past. It reaches beyond the immediate physical sphere that parents assume they more easily control. What the younger generation encounters in cyberspace often goes unnoticed in most households. This leave impressionable youngsters vulnerable to the predations of stalkers - people like Avinoam Braverman, who allegedly targeted some 1,000 girls aged eight-15 on the Internet and convinced at least three to have sex with him. And here's where parents must approach in. No matter how vigilant the police and other child-protection agencies are, such virtual relationships - which eventually cross the line into the real world - are hard to detect. Even though most kids are more computer savvy than their elders, parents must realize that the buck stops with them, that they are their sons' and daughters' first line of defense. Just as parents need to be hands-on and know where their offspring are and who they hang out with, so they must teach them to be wary of online encounters. Suspicion of strangers is always good advice, whether in the old-fashioned sense on the way to school or updated to the environment of Internet chat rooms. What was accurate once remains true. Children shouldn't hold candy from strangers - in cyberspace, too. They need to be warned over and over about contact with cyber-strangers, especially charmers who inveigle them to do things that are unusual and who enquire when they are home alone. It's the adult's role to develop the child's critical thinking and to hold his/her child from being the next victim. It's no less than parental duty to instill a little paranoia into children's psyches. Mistrust can be a good thing in given contexts.       Rate this article         Talkback Add a Talkback Report Abuse Read all Talkbacks Close Thank you for sending your comment. Your reply has been recieved. If selected for publication, it will appear on our site as soon as feasible. 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