1. When I think of child abuse I, as I
think most people do, immediately think of an adult physically hitting a
child. However, I also realize that
there are other forms of abuse aside from actually hitting someone. Essentially, though, I think child abuse to
be mistreating a child through physical, sexual, or emotional means.
I realize actually, from talking
with friends growing up, that there is a debate at whether spanking is child
abuse or not - or rather, at the time whether we thought it was "right,''
or acceptable. I personally don't
believe spanking a child for doing something wrong to be child abuse, so long
as the spanker doesn't truly hurt the spanked.
I guess what differentiates spanking as being "okay" or abuse
is how hard the spanking is. There's a
difference between spanking a child and hitting a child. So if a parent spanks their child to steer
them away from doing something wrong or bad, I think that's acceptable and
allowable, but when a parent passes that threshold and hits their child to
teach them a lesson, I don't believe that to be acceptable or allowable. Though I will also add, that I realize the
line I've drawn is a thin one which can and is crossed often.
Since everyone has their own views
on this, it's hard to say for sure what should concern the public or not. Even spanking is considered by some as
unacceptable in public areas - some even altogether. However, I fall back to what I mentioned
earlier in that I believe there is a difference between spanking and
hitting. So I do believe that parents
should be allowed to punish their children in public without being chastised
for it. One of the points for this would
be that if a parent doesn't punish their child for doing something bad at the
time that it is committed and instead at a later time, say back home while not
in public, it can led the child to confusion.
They did whatever bad deed they did and had no repercussions, but then
when they were alone with their parent, they were punished for seemingly, to
them, no reason. I think spanking is an
acceptable form of public punishment, but hitting your child is not.
2. Any person who violates the Nebraska Child
Pornography Prevention Act, which is comprised of sections 28-1463.01-.05 of
the Nebraska Revised Statute, and is under nineteen years of age is guilty of a
Class III felony. If the person is over
nineteen years of age, they are guilty of a Class ID felony, ad repeat
offenders are guilty of a Class IC felony.
In addition, if one under the age of nineteen caught with such
possessions, they are guilty of a Class IIIA felony, while those above the age
of nineteen are guilty of a Class III felony.
In addition, if they are repeat offenders, they are charged with a Class
IC felony. These offenders can face up
to 20 years in jail and possibly a fine.
In addition, they need to register as a sex offender.
Nebraska, in 2009, passed
legislation about teenage sexting. Those
under the age of 18 will not be punished by receiving a sexually explicit image
of a minor if such minor was at least 15 years of age and voluntarily created
the image. Also the receiver may not
distribute such an image to others. If they
do, they will be punished. In addition,
if minors are currently engaged in sexual activity in the images, then both
parties will be punished regardless as to whether it was distributed or not.
Sexting is the sending of sexually
explicit messages and/or pictures from one person to another via cell phones. I think that if the sexting involves child
pornography, then yes, both parties should be punished to varying degrees. Depending on their ages, they, in the grand
scheme of things, don't know what they're doing. Or so at least I'd like to believe. However, if the sexting is between two adults
who are in a relationship with each other, I don't feel like anything needs to
be done - meaning I don't think they need to be punished for it.
(28-1463.01
through 28-1463.05)
3. This case deals with a child who, after
school, was dropped off by the bus driver roughly 15 miles away from his
house. A construction worker happened to
see the boy walking and crying and so the worker called his mother who came and
got him. The bus driver, however, said
that the child was not on his student list and that he was going to the kid's
grandfather's house to drop him off.
Apparently there was a short phone conversation with the bus driver and
his boss who told the driver to leave the kid at the last stop, causing the kid
to walk home. This misdemeanor led to
the bus driver being put on administrative leave while his boss got fired.
For better or for worse, this
article didn't affect me all that much.
I believe this to be because that this case turned out to have a
relatively happy ending. The child ended
up being fine and action was taken against the two involved with leaving the
child so far away from home.
4. One of the more popular fairly recent
movies about child abuse is Precious, which is based upon a book called
"Push." This story revolves
around a girl who goes by Precious, her middle name, and is constantly being
physically and emotionally abused by her mother and has been raped by her
father throughout her life. Although her
mother doesn't think school will do Precious any good, Precious gets
transferred to an alternative school where she finds hope for herself to get
out of her horrible situation.
There is a book
that captures, startlingly well, one of the most severe child abuse cases known
to California: A Child Called "It."
This book tells the tale of a child who grew up with a very abusive
mother who not only beat, but starved him.
She considered him her slave and an "it," instead of a boy who
was her son. With torn and smelly
clothing and living conditions, this child kept alive by playing his mothers
games and dreaming of finding a family that would love him.
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60748.A_Child_Called_It_
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