PARIS (AP) 鈥 A new campaign in France allows young children to flag abusive attacks by simply dropping letters in easily accessible mailboxes across the country, for experts to assess. And the results have led to several police investigations, while giving a rare and shocking snapshot of the scale of child abuse in France.
Started by a police officer who was himself sexually abused as a boy and founded a child protection group called Les Papillons (鈥淏utterflies鈥), the two-year-old program runs under the motto: 鈥淚f you can鈥檛 say it, write it.鈥
Most of the written messages deposited over the past year in the 200 white boxes set up in primary schools, sports clubs and other places accessible to some 61,000 children, refer to insults, mockery, and psychological aggression.
But 13% concerns school bullying, 21% physical abuse, and 7% sexual abuse. In the latter group, 30% occurred within the family circle and 70% concerned girls.
鈥淚t鈥檚 useful for some children who cannot get to speak out loud of painful things, or who don鈥檛 know whom to talk to,鈥 said Florence, the principal of a school for 3- to 10-year-olds in a rural area of eastern France.
鈥淚t鈥檚 very difficult to speak about sexual abuse, especially if that鈥檚 about someone in or close to the family 鈥 whereas the mailbox is neutral,鈥 she stressed. She asked The Associated Press not to use her full name, to protect the privacy of the children involved.
About half the complaints are from children aged 8-9, and over 15% are aged 6-7, given that the majority of mailboxes are placed in primary schools and most young kids don鈥檛 have a mobile phone to call the 119 official helpline for abused children.
Police officer Laurent Boyet, head of Les Papillons, said the initiative helps home in on an issue that is difficult to detect in official statistics.
In projections based on the past year's responses, the group calculated that out of the country's 12 million preschool to high school students there could be an estimated 840,000 victims of sexual abuse, including 240,000 cases of incest.
鈥淭he great strength of (the) process is that it鈥檚 based on the children鈥檚 words ... There鈥檚 no adult interfering,鈥 Boyet stressed.
Boyet . He said he was raped by his brother, who was 10 years older, when he was between the ages of 6 and 9.
鈥淚 know from having been a victim myself: the aggressor forbids (children) to speak ... But no one tells you that you cannot write,鈥 he said. 鈥淎nd writing, you can do it quietly in your bedroom.鈥
Each time a mailbox is installed, Boyet said, explanations are provided to children about the project. A person of trust is designated to pick up the letters at least twice a week. Messages are then assessed by a team of 12 volunteers, all professionals in the field of children鈥檚 issues, including psychologists and educators.
About 5% of the cases have been reported to the local authorities鈥 child maltreatment units in charge of taking necessary measures.
And 1.6% of the messages have been immediately reported to prosecutors, leading to a police investigation, in line with French law regarding 鈥渟erious and imminent danger鈥 to children. They include all alleged sexual abuses.
It happened in the school where Florence is the principal after a mailbox was set up there when she heard about the initiative from one of the association鈥檚 volunteers.
鈥淚t seemed interesting,鈥 she said. 鈥淚 thought there were not many issues in my school so, at the beginning, it was more to clear my conscience. I thought that it wouldn鈥檛 hurt. As it turns out, there were some needs.鈥 Florence.
In June, on the very first day the mailbox was set up, a 10-year-old girl left a message naming her grandfather, and describing what appeared to have been instances of incestuous rape. A few days later, police officers confirmed that she and two other girls in her family had allegedly been victims of incest for years.
This was a 鈥渢ragic鈥 situation, Florence recalled. 鈥淚n the end, the parents thanked us because it helped their daughter to escape a sexual predator.鈥 The suspected aggressor is now in prison pending trial.
Boyet stressed that almost all children take the mailboxes seriously and that malicious or made-up accusations are 鈥渆xtremely rare.鈥 Only 2% of the messages in the mailboxes are anonymous and almost none are irrelevant, he added.
Before the 2000s, France did not have specific national surveys on interpersonal violence. And it was not until 2015 that a large survey provided a better understanding of violence during childhood.
Carried out by the French Institute of Demographic Studies, Ined, it provided estimates of sexual abuse under the age of 18, based on a sample of nearly 27,000 adult women and men. It showed that 4% of women and O,4% of men said they experienced unwanted sexual touching, while rapes and rape attempts have been reported by 1,5% of women and 0.3% of men.
Boyet said he was not surprised by the figures resulting from the Papillons initiative showing the extent of child abuse. 鈥淚t strengthened my conviction in the sense that figures we usually use, we know they are under-estimated,鈥 he said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 what gives meaning to the work we are doing.鈥
