A Consultant Psychiatrist, Dr Tomi Imarah, said parents might have potentially contributed to their children’s exposure to sexual predators and a higher risk of sexual assault or rape.

Imarah, who runs an Online Mental Health Service, “Dr Tomi’s Haven’’, made the assertion in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Lagos.
She spoke against the backdrop of rampant cases of sexual assault of teenagers in various parts of the country.

According to her, many times, parents innocently allow their children to be around people who turn out to have less than honorable intentions.

The consultant psychiatrist said that many children and adolescents have had a wide range of traumatic experiences including sexual assault, abuse and rape directly from interactions with people their parents introduced into their lives.

Quoting the current statistics by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on the issue, she said that one in four girls and one in 10 boys in Nigeria had experienced sexual violence before the age of 18.

“Equally disturbing are the findings of a research study about the prevalence of sexual assault in Nigeria conducted in 2016, which reported that 52 per cent of assailants are mostly persons known to the victim.

“Also, 48.5 per cent of the assaults occurred mostly in the assailants’ house or office,’’ she said.

Imarah urged parents to engage in self-reflection and examine all the ways their actions might have been putting their wards at risk.

She also advised parents and guardians to establish an open line of communication with their children as early as possible.

“When they can talk to you about the seemingly mundane details of their lives everyday and can freely ask questions about the scenarios they observe around them, coming to you with more serious experiences will be less awkward.

“Have age appropriate conversations about the body, sex, consent, and safe personal interactions.

“Many people stumbled on these conversations outside their homes, including school friends, older neighbours and these shaped their perspectives and preferences negatively in various ways,’’ she said. (NAN)

– July 2, 2019 @ 14:05 GMT |