Role of Mass Media Tools to Educate School Children about Child Sexual Abuse A Study of Students in Chandigarh

Abstract

The mass media is considered as the fourth pillar of democracy. Media can connect a large number of individuals in a short period of time. The mass media effectively delivers messages throughout society through its various tools such as newspapers, radio, magazines, television, cinema and new media. The content that is broadcast by the media has an impact on people of all ages. Children are seen as a country s future. It is necessary to provide a safe and healthy environment for children for their proper development. India has the largest number of sexually abused children in the world. According to national and international research reports, a child less than 16 years is raped every 155th minute in India. One of the primary causes of the increasing incidents of CSA cases is a culture of silence and ignorance about the problem. The vast majority of people relate CSA solely with child rape and other types of child sexual abuses are mostly unreported due to unawareness. To minimize the number of occurrences, it is essential to raise public awareness about the problem. The current study is to determine the most effective communication medium for disseminating information about CSA among school children. newlineThe present study selected students in grades seventh to tenth from five schools in Chandigarh including four government schools and one government-aided school. A total of 500 students from both types of schools were included in the study through a systematic random sampling method.According to the findings, teachers and parents were the primary sources of information about GTBT and CSA among respondents. It was observed that media has create awareness about GTBT and CSA among school students to some extent. Television became the most preferred medium among respondents for learning about child sexual abuse and good touch, bad touch. It is suggested that a multi-media strategy should be developed to create awareness of child sexual abuse and prevention strategies among children, teachers, and parents. newline