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What is child abuse?

Child abuse happens when an adult mistreats or neglects a child. The person who abuses is misusing their position of trust and authority. This could be a parent, guardian,relatives, paid caregiver or sibling.

Children depend upon adults to protect them, support them and help them survive. Being abused damages their sense of safety. It also makes them more likely to be abused and exploited in the future.

Child abuse is a silent crime. It can happen in all cultures, social classes, and religions. Also, children with disabilities are more at risk for abuse.

What forms does child abuse take?

A child can be abused in different ways. Following are just some examples:

Physical abuse

Physical abuse means inflicting physical harm on a child's body. It may involve abusing a child a single time, or it may involve a pattern of incidents. Some examples are:

• Shaking, choking, biting, kicking or burning a child
• Handling a child roughly when helping them with dressing and going to the bathroom
• Using force or restraint in any other harmful way.

Often the parents or child abuser feel they need to physically punish or discipline the child. They may also think what they are doing is good for the child. An example of this is female genital mutilation (also known as "female circumcision").

Physical abuse sometimes leaves the child with a permanent disability. For example, a child may end up deaf, become paraplegic or have brain or spinal cord injury.

Emotional abuse

Emotional abuse includes other acts that can harm a child's sense of worth. It is usually part of a long-term problem.

It harms a child's self-confidence when an adult insults, rejects or humiliates them often. Other examples of emotional abuse include:

• Isolating a child - keeping them away from other children, or removing their wheelchair or hearing aids.
• Intimidating or terrorizing a child - locking children in closets or basements, threatening or shouting at them, making them fear the adult.
• Exploiting a child - having them do things children don't normally do, like working when they should be in school.
• Making unreasonable demands - telling them to play outside without getting dirty. Telling them to change their homosexual orientation if they want to stay living at home.