Analysis: How Prevalent in Taiwan is Child Physical Abuse?
Hitting children is still a cultural norm in Taiwan, says Dr. Frank Lu, director of National Taiwan University Hospital's Child Protection Center. But he says government and society can do more to support parents and show them better ways of disciplining their kids.
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00:00 This survey from the Child Welfare League Foundation found that 90% of people in Taiwan
00:07 have seen some form of child abuse happening in public. Is this reflective of a broader
00:13 social problem among parents and parenting here?
00:16 Because of the Asia culture, sometimes we have more restrict parenting and like the
00:23 tiger parents that really are restrict on children. So in the social problems and custom,
00:31 actually, we are used to that part. So many people now that are grown up, we will hit in the
00:39 young age. So, but we think that is, we have to improve that. It's a new era right now. And we
00:47 think parenting has to change its content because violence is really not helpful for parenting.
00:54 Only about a third of respondents to the survey said they'd try to intervene if they saw parents
01:01 berating or hitting their child in public. So why do you think so few would be willing to step
01:06 forward?
01:07 In Taiwanese, actually, we talk about that sometimes that's their family business or
01:12 family things. We don't want to get involved in other people's family. So sometimes we are
01:18 reluctant to do that traditionally. But so we think that is important to let anybody know that
01:25 not violence is actually against human rights.
01:29 What can Taiwanese society as a whole do to minimize the harm caused by abusive parenting?
01:37 This is actually what we are thinking about for a long time. And especially for when we're talking
01:44 about child abuse and neglect, we have actually we have a law which is agreed to let the parenting
01:51 to do physical punishment. I think the Ministry of Justice actually is coming out with a revised
01:58 law and regulation. And that is very important is that we provide more support for parents.
02:05 Actually, they take care of the children. They have lots of stress and issues. So sometimes when
02:10 it's their temper comes out and hard to control, actually, they will use a kind of violence.
02:17 So how to give a positive parenting influence and let everybody understand more details and
02:25 skills, I think is also something the society can do together.
02:29 there.
02:30 [BLANK_AUDIO]