Today (June 9th) is Full Stop Day, the spearhead of the NSPCCs work to combat cruelty to young people. Children's Express journalists ask how successful the advertising campaign has been, and what can still be done to stop abuse of the young.
| Children are our most vulnerable citizens in our society – and our greatest treasures. |
Every day after school, Michael, aged five, and Paul, seven, crept home afraid of finding their parents drunk and fighting. Too ashamed to invite their playmates home, they wondered whether their parents drank because the boys werent good enough. At night they hid under the bed, terrified that their mum and dad would kill one another.
A scene from another post-watershed TV drama? No, this is real life, and typical of the NSPCCs past attempts to draw attention to the suffering of young people in Britain today.
Lizzie Emmett, NSPCC media officer for the North of England, says the harsh tactics are necessary. Sometimes people need to be shocked because the statistics surrounding the harm that happens to young people are shocking.
Suffering is not confined to broken bones. Sometimes the guilt that kids carry with them into adult life can be just as painful.
In the last year, NSPCC attempts to highlight the everyday mistreatment of the young have taken two dramatic and controversial turns. The High Street billboard and the widescreen TV have become the battleground for the countrys conscience.
In March last year, the FULL STOP campaign was launched by Tony Blair and a host of celebrities. This year Ross Kemp, Madonna, and Ewan Mcgregor urge us to wear the little green badge today to support the NSPCC.
But behind the warm-hearted support of the celebrities lies a much harsher approach. Last years Dont Close Your Eyes campaign took the challenge of child abuse into kids bedrooms, and struck at our deepest feelings. Portraits of destroyed childhoods showed Rupert Bear, Action Man, the Spice Girls, and teddies on a nursery wall, all covering their eyes so they cannot witness the abuse about to take place.
The images were horrific and disturbing and brilliant. Lizzie Emmett recalls that some of the media branded the adverts sensationalist, but the positive response was astonishing: There were grown-ups whod recognised a scene from their childhood, and it brought things flooding back.
In conversations among young journalists at Childrens Express, the idea that the campaigns are over-the-top has been discussed and dismissed. Sara Hawkins, 15, says People who say the NSPCC have gone too far are those who are afraid to admit to themselves that this kind of thing is happening to young children.
David Burnham, 15 from Southey Green, agrees: These posters actually take you into a kids bedroom. Thats why they strike at the heart.
This years campaign has continued in the same line, but with a focus on injuries to babies. The first you see is the picture of a loving father cuddling his baby. Then you read the text: That night he felt like slamming her against the cot. Even the words are pastel coloured to increase the shock even ordinary people become violent if they cant cope. So they need to ask for help.
Away from awareness-raising in the High Street and on TV, the NSPCC also spends a lot of time talking to schoolchildren, using assemblies and short plays to reinforce the message of what to do if kids feel uncomfortable in a situation. Lizzie Emmett is quite direct when it comes to one particular message: I think a lot of children will be told that adults always knows best. Thats not always the case. The adults not always got their best interest at heart. If a young person doesnt feel somethings right, they dont have to put up with it.
Where children can turn for help
Apart from the NSPCC, who do young people turn to for help.
Organisations like Childline do a brilliant job but sometimes kids need somebody who can be physically there for them immediately.
Teachers often become the focus for a young persons need for advice but even better are peer mentoring or buddy schemes where kids themselves trained as counsellors become the first point of contact.
Anna Bradshaw, 16, knows the value of such a system. Ive never been abused but when I was 11 we had a buddy system in our school, and I could tell that other person anything because I trusted her.
Whatever the answer, the facts of child abuse speak for themselves. At least one child a year dies because of cruelty and 35,000 are at risk of abuse and therefore in authority care. A total of 110,000 adults in the UK have been convicted of sex offences against children. Infants under 12 months are four times more likely to be homicide victims than the rest of the population.
Nelson Mandela once wrote, Children are our most vulnerable citizens in our society - and our greatest treasures.
At the NSPCC Lizzie Emmett would echo that, but recognises the continuing need to confront child cruelty with practical action: Were one charity, we cant do it on our own. Were hoping people will join together and work together. Children are everybodys future, everybodys business, and everyones responsibility.
About the team
This article was produced by Anna Bradshaw, 16, Sara Hawkins, 15, Samantha Chetwynd, David Burnham, Laura Brunt, all 15, Wesley Taylor and Rebecca Robinson, 14. It was published in the Sheffield Star.
