A Call to Strengthen Protections for Children Against Sexual Predators
President Halimah Yacob has emphasized the urgent need to explore new measures to safeguard children from sexual predators. In a Facebook post on Monday (Dec 19), she expressed her deep concern over the disturbing trend of child rapes occurring within the home, often perpetrated by male relatives. “I find the recent spate of cases involving rapes of children in their own homes by their male relatives highly disturbing and sickening,” she stated.
Mdm Halimah challenged the notion that rapists over the age of fifty should be exempt from caning, arguing that it is unjust for them to evade punishment while their victims suffer lifelong trauma. “It’s ironic that they could escape from the pain caused by caning despite the lifetime of severe trauma and irreparable damage that they cruelly inflicted on their victims,” she remarked.
The president highlighted a concerning pattern in these cases, where victims were groomed from a young age by their abusers—often fathers, stepfathers, or other male relatives—leading them to believe that the abusive acts were normal. “Quite a number of the victims only discovered that such acts were wrong when they attended sex education classes much later in school,” she noted, emphasizing how predators exploit the innocence of children to normalize their perverse behavior.
Mdm Halimah also pointed out that many victims hesitated to report the abuse due to fear of disrupting the family or losing their primary provider. “Others were threatened and intimidated into silence,” she added. “Imagine the terror and vulnerability of a child stuck in a home that’s supposed to be a sanctuary but became a living hell instead.”
While acknowledging that strict punishments for offenders are crucial, she insisted that they are not enough to fully protect children from sexual abuse. Mdm Halimah urged relevant government agencies to seek better strategies for protecting children in domestic environments.
The online community has largely echoed Mdm Halimah’s sentiments, with many advocating for harsher penalties for abusers. One Facebook user, Jeffrey Poh, suggested considering the death penalty for severe cases, stating, “Some of their deeds destroyed lives. The victims may not be murdered, but their lives are as good as destroyed or worse than death.”
