[Hungary] Dr.Szilvia Gyurkó: If a child has a good relationship with his/her parents, it is harder to be groomed

Dr Szilvia Gyurkó, children’s rights expert’s thoughts are summarized in nlc.hu article about what needs to happen in order to eliminate violence and abuse in children’s lives. Hungarian children are the least aware of their rights in Europe. A survey on the topic showed that only 38 per cent of Hungarian children said they knew what their rights were, number which is a significant drop from the EU27 average of 67 per cent. But the situation is even worse than this: only 18 per cent of Hungarian children said they would seek help if their rights were violated.

It is an important step that violence against children is legally prohibited, but it is also essential that sarge-scale social campaigns support the law since children’s rights are not a set of abstract concepts. Children’s rights are needs for a violence-free life.

In Hungary, the convention that raising children is an internal matter for the family, and you cannot have a say in that, even if we see abuse committed in a public place, is still strong. The sad thing is, that not only parents think it is acceptable to beat a child, but also a quarter of children say it is ok to be hit by a parent.

The risk of abuse is greatest for children in institutional settings, where, in most cases, the child does not even recognise that s/he is a victim of abuse but is also ostracized by society, which has no faith in them.

In case of children living in a family, it is common for the abuser to be a close family member or friend.

According to the expert, children who have a good relationship with their parents, and are raised in a loving atmosphere, are least likely to be at risk of grooming.