The subdelegate of the Government in A Coruña, María Rivas, visited this morning the Integrated Public Center Castro Baxoi in the city of Miño, to present the first workshops of affective sexual education aimed at the prevention of violence in childhood and adolescence, and in which 50 students and students of the center participate.
The deputy delegate was accompanied by María Catalina Morado Fariña, 1st deputy mayor responsible for the areas of education, culture, communication, transparency and equality; the Director of the center Juan Luís García; the head of the unit of violence against women in the province of A Coruña, Manuela Vilaboy, and the Territorial Director of Education of the Xunta.
The main objective of the workshops is to work on the prevention of all types of violence, promoting well-being among children and adolescents. It is about providing students with tools to prevent, detect, know, and when necessary, face situations of violence.
The Commission’s Annual Report on Violence against Children and Adolescents 2022-2023 collects data at the state level from the Central Registry of Information on Violence against Children and Adolescents (RCIVIA). Second, the RCIVÍA in 2015 recorded 13,818 cases, with an incidence rate of 165.8 cases per 100,000 persons under 18 years of age; in the last available year that is 2021, the cases amount to 21,521 with a rate of 338.6 cases per 100,000 persons under 18 years of age.
We are therefore talking about an increase of 7,703 cases in 6 years, an exponential growth of more than 1,200 cases per year, chagging to double the incidence rate.
In the same line are the data collected in its last report by the ANAR Foundation - reference report for the entities -; the sexual assaults detected by the Tfno./Chat ANAR increase by 55.1% in the last 5 years; for each case in 2008, 4.5 were registered in 2023. The main mode of aggression occurs face-to-face, at 91.5%. The profile of the victims and markedly female: in 78.7% of cases, girls and adolescent women are involved. The profile of the aggressor is a man, older, of the victim's environment, where 50.3% are members of their own family. The technologies are involved in 43.9% of cases, with phenomena such as grooming or non-consensual sexting.
The subdelegate indicated that with these figures, the administrations have to do everything in our power to work in the field of prevention, especially in childhood and adolescence since it is time to provide girls and raptors with the tools to know, detect and face possible situations of violence; that if they occur they will mark their entire existence. “We have to try to get there early, to detect in time, and to offer the victims and their families our full support.”
Rivas reported that these workshops are part of the activities programmed by the subdelegation in A Coruña around November 25, International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, since it is the objective of the Government to work to build a fairer, more egalitarian society and free of all types of violence, especially violence against women, girls and children.
In this regard, the subdelegate recalled that we have Organic Law 10/2022, on the integral guarantee of sexual freedom (LOGILS), which contains specific measures to guarantee the protection of girls and boys under 18 years of age against sexual violence; and Organic Law 8/2021, on the integral protection of children and adolescents against violence (LOPIVI), which makes it possible to act from a comprehensive approach, taking into account the multidimensional nature of risk factors and their consequences. No LOPIVI framework the government is pursuing a strategy to eradicate violence against children and adolescents.
In the workshops, which are taking place today in Miño, but which will soon arrive in the other towns of the province, the students will learn to know, understand and respect themselves.
They will be addressed in the biological, emotional and related aspects of the body, including body perception and sexual health. Concepts such as empathy, active listening and respect in interpersonal relationships will be strengthened. We will talk about loving relationships, couples, sexuality, myths about love and consent will be treated in an integral way. And sexual violence and dangers on social networks and pornography will be addressed.
The subdelegate reported that this activity will be carried out in collaboration with Child Abuse and Maltreatment NO-Galicia (AMINO_GAL), a non-profit entity founded in 2014, which works fundamentally on prevention, detection and advice in situations of violence towards children and adolescents; offering support to families and victims through care by professionals from various fields related to childhood and adolescence.