Be wary of who’s looking after your children, expert says

Listen to this article:

Professor Ofa Swann. Picture: JAKE CABANIUK/FT FILE

STOP bringing family members into your homes to look after your children.

This is the plea by University of the South Pacific lecturer and psychologist, Ofa Swann to parents and guardians across the country.

She was reacting to statistics released by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) on children who were victims of sexual offences.

“You don’t know what situation these extended family members were exposed to before they came to you, and we don’t do vigorous background checks on them because they are family,” she said.

“Check everybody who has anything to do with your child, even if they have blood links.

Ms Swann said parents of victims of abuse should be investigated as to their whereabouts. She said she was concerned about young boys and men looking after very young girls – or brothers looking after sisters.

“Get a qualified person to do that or you do it yourself or don’t have children.”

Ms Swann said that those who commit sexual offences need therapy or counselling.

“We do not focus on why these people are abusing and generally the literature would tell you if you’ve been abused you will just continue the cycle.

“They need help they must be subjected to counselling to some form of therapy because otherwise they will never ever recover and you need people to rehabilitate to come back to the society and that won’t happen if you lock them away and throw away the key and do nothing.”

Array
(
    [post_type] => post
    [post_status] => publish
    [orderby] => date
    [order] => DESC
    [update_post_term_cache] => 
    [update_post_meta_cache] => 
    [cache_results] => 
    [category__in] => 1
    [posts_per_page] => 4
    [offset] => 0
    [no_found_rows] => 1
    [date_query] => Array
        (
            [0] => Array
                (
                    [after] => Array
                        (
                            [year] => 2023
                            [month] => 12
                            [day] => 19
                        )

                    [inclusive] => 1
                )

        )

)