THE EDITOR, Sir:
IT IS a cause for concern that young children are being left alone with their under-developed intellect and frame of mind, to presume that deviant sexual practices are correct and acceptable. Sexual promiscuity has taken such giant steps, so much so, that in some communities, a virgin is allegedly being defined as someone who has had only one abortion. From reports elsewhere in the media, children's pervasive sexual behaviour is no longer confined to high school teenagers and their 'no baggy day' conduct on public transport, but now includes sophisticated pre-puberty primary school children with money-making in mind.
We may choose to smile or become nonchalant about the business acumen of an alleged nine-year-old pimp and his bevy of eight-year-old prostitutes plying their trade in the schoolyard, but this very disturbing loss of their innocence is worrying. We can no longer giggle or whisper about whose business it is to advise these young children of the exposure to and dangers of sexual diseases.
Even if the phenomenon is not widespread across all primary schools in the country, it could have a disproportionate effect on the poor in both the inner-city and rural households, where lack of adequate financial resources cannot provide medicine for inadvertent illnesses.
The primary role in preventing the exploitation of children still lies with their parents who must educate them, and to a lesser extent, the community that should protect them. If not, these responsibilities will become a 'societal thing' that the overburdened taxpayer will have to pay for in one way or the other. We are all staring trouble not only in the face, but below the waist.
I am, etc.,
SONIA CHRISTIE
Stewart Town P.O.
Trelawny
