Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-02-03-Speech-2-037"
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"en.20090203.4.2-037"2
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"Madam President, there is such political agreement on this issue that it seems strange that so little is happening in Member States.
Our focus on the Internet is obviously very important, but it suggests that this problem is a new one, when we clearly know that it is a very old problem and was very well hidden. It happened not just outside schools with bags of sweets, but it happened in homes, in all of our Member States, in churches and in hospitals.
The Internet has perhaps shone a light on this very dark part of society which we are still grappling with, and grappling very badly with. It is very urgent that Member States take seriously their many fine words about protecting children, just as we in this House have spoken very much about how we value and protect children, whereas in fact, our actions are often much weaker than the strong words we speak.
I mentioned that the home is sometimes the most dangerous place for children. We had a recent case in Ireland which highlighted this. I would also add that those who believe that small towns, where everyone knows one another, are a safe place for children, need to think again. In small towns, people very often close their eyes because they do not want to speak about ‘soft information’ that they have, and are perhaps afraid to pass it on to the authorities.
This is something that we all need to look at and be prepared to speak about, because silence causes abuse to grow, and causes awful damage to the children who are caught in that situation. I call on the Irish Government to bring forward legislation on a wide range of measures to protect children against sexual abuse. I think we also need to look at our Constitution, which puts the family before the rights of the child. They should not be in conflict: both deserve protection from our Constitution."@en1
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