Child abuse can come in many forms. Abusive behaviour involves treating someone with cruelty or violence. It often happens regularly or repeatedly.

There are four main types of abuse:

Physical abuse: Any use of physical force against a child that doesn’t happen by accident and causes injury. Hitting, beating, shaking, punching, biting, burning, scratching, strangling or choking a child are all examples of child abuse.

Sexual abuse: Any type of sexual involvement or contact between a child and an adult. Sexual abuse can be voyeurism (spying on or watching a child), sexual acts and incest (sex between family members).

Emotional abuse: A pattern of denying a child love, approval and security, or mistreating a child in the way an adult speaks to them or acts towards them. Bullying, yelling, isolating, criticising, terrorising, ignoring and shaming are all types of emotional abuse.

Neglect: Failing to provide a child with the things they need to thrive and grow, such as shelter, food, hygiene, supervision, medical attention, education or safety.

Child abuse is never okay, for any reason. Some reasons people give as to why they abuse children include:

-a desire to feel powerful
-they themselves experienced abuse as children
-they don't understand that children have a right to feel safe
-they think it's okay or appropriate (it's not, ever).

If you’ve been abused as a child, it can lead to:

-shame/self-blaming
-anger towards the abuser
-fear of getting close to and trusting people
-sadness, confusion and low self-esteem
-flashbacks, nightmares and reliving the abuse
-denial that abuse has happened
-trouble at school with learning new things and socialising with others.

Child abuse is illegal in Cambodia and should be reported. If you believe you have been abused, talk to someone you trust and who can help you through the process. We ask the courts of Cambodia to make sure the abused child does not have to face your abuser and talk about it in court. Cambodia needs to allow minors to give evidence on video, without having to sit through the trauma of a court case. Currently, in Cambodia, children have to give testimony multiple times – to the prosecutor, to the investigating judge and to the trial judge – all at the courthouse and without full protections in place for children.