dictionary

Bilchick: U.S. needs to better take care of its children

Shay Bilchick

Shay Bilchick, the executive director of the Child Welfare League of America, discussed Monday a new report on the sexual exploitation of children with CNN's Natalie Allen.

CNN: This may be tough for America to absorb, Mr. Bilchick, these numbers coming out, and we learned that just 3 percent of exploitation and abuse of children is from strangers. What do you make of the numbers?

BILCHICK: I think what the report highlights is that we are simply not doing a good enough job in this country taking care of our children.

And this is another area of concern that we have, the exploitation, the sexual exploitation of our children, and this report highlights with wrong numbers 300,000 to 400,000 children that are out there right now being sexually exploited, that we have to pay closer attention to the problem, including what's happening right in our own homes and neighborhoods, with kids who we think we're taking good care of.

CNN: Exactly, because that seems to what is so astounding by this; 47 percent ... of abuse comes from family members. And these are middle class homes. Many children who are the runaways are just children who are trying to escape being sexually abused at home.

LEGAL RESOURCES Latest Legal News Law Library FindLaw Consumer Center Select a topic Bankruptcy Discrimination Divorce Estate Planning Landlord-Tenant Personal Injury Taxes

BILCHICK: I think [what] we have to realize, is that these children in many ways, whether they are runaways, throwaways or within their own home not being taken care of, they're not nurtured and protected the way they need to. They're simply different at stages of process, so to speak. If they're not taken care of, usually when they run away, they're running away from something, not to something. They're being thrown away by parents who aren't taking care of them and protecting them.

We need to do a better job as a society identifying those children, those families, and doing the kind of prevention and interventions that could be successful in reducing those numbers, including greater levels of enforcement on this issue.

CNN: Do you think ... that is the first time that this has been exposed in this study, the numbers have been here all along? Or have things like this sex trade, which has been just skyrocketing and growing via the Internet, is fueling more problems with sexual abuse?

BILCHICK: I think at different periods of time, we get a report that highlights this problem and this issue, and it alarms us, we pay attention for a while and then it fades.

What we have to realize is that this has been a building problem, it's -- the numbers are exponential, and we need to pay closer attention to them, and not let the issues fade. Our leaders need to get a hold of this issue, get their arms around it and do the multifaceted things this report recommends to really get on top of the issue.

CNN: So if there are teen-agers or young boys and girls that are watching this show, what do you say to children, if they're being abused a home, where do they go, who do they talk with, what do they do?

BILCHICK: I'm glad you asked that question. And really, there are various aspects to it. It's not just what you tell the children, but what you say to a community as a whole. And that is to put in the kind of prevention programs that might prevent this problem from happening in families that are struggling with how to protect their children, how to better intervene when abused, and neglect and exploitation is reported, and how to empower, which is the question you asked -- empower our children.

It's OK to talk about these issues when they do happen. Go to a school counselor, a teacher, someone at their church or synagogue, and talk about the issue, because it's not their fault. They are not to blame. Our children are simply being exploited. They need to know that it's not their fault.

CNN: Final question: It seems every week we have a report about a pedophile being arrested, and there's always videos or pictures of children being abused, some children being raped. What happens to these children -- we never hear about that part -- when they grow up?

BILCHICK: One of the things that we see is that there's a devastating impact on the lives of these children, when there is no proper intervention. Even when there is, there is going to be an impact. But when we don't have treatment, we don't pay attention to the needs that they have at this crisis in their lives, they really have very little chance to make into a whole kind of fruitful, productive life.

We need to put the treatment programs in place to help those children deal with the issues, and conversely, we need to make sure we ratchet up the prosecution of these cases, stop the kind of benign neglect that we heard about in this report from happening in prosecutor's offices, or in the justice system as a whole.