When John was 17, he bashed up and raped his 15-year-old sister. That
story, along with several other teen terror reports raised some
concerns among Singaporeans. How could such things happen to children?
STOMPer Anngry thinks parents are at fault.
At
the tender age of 13, John (not his real name) had already been sent to
a juvenile home for distributing obscene films, theft and voluntarily
causing hurt.
Then, at 17 and obviously unremorseful, he became a sex monster by molesting and raping his younger sister.
Last
week, the 21-year-old national serviceman was sentenced to 13 years in
jail and 15 strokes of the cane for the sexual abuse as well as several
traffic offences.
In another teen terror story, 16-year-old Paul
(not his real name) bashed up and raped his 15-year-old girlfriend,
Anna (not her real name). The abuse happened not once, but thrice, and
it wasn't until the third rape that Anna decided not to stay silent
anymore, and confided in a friend.
All these teen terror reports have left STOMPer Anngry baffled. What are the parents doing, says the STOMPer.
In the STOMPer’s email:
“It’s
hard to believe that all these offenders and victims are only in their
teens. Unfortunately, cases like these are not uncommon. Sexual abuse
amongst teenagers is on the rise, and the question on everyone’s minds
is – who’s to blame?
“The first thing that comes to our minds
are the parents. How could parents possibly allow such things to happen
right under their noses? Don’t they have any idea what their children
are up to?
“Parents can protect their adolescents from
developing problem behaviours if they implement recommended best
parenting practices.
“Aren’t parents supposed to be educators
and protectors? Who can a child possibly turn to if they can't even
rely on their parents for help and guidance?
“One may argue that
these parents could possibly be out working hard so that they can
provide for their children and give them a better life. But can they be
so indulged in their work that they have absolutely no inkling about
what’s going on at home? Now that’s not sensible parenting.
“Kids
do not become troubled teenagers overnight. Prior to committing sexual
abuse, surely there are signs. Kids are bound to commit strings of
smaller offences or have behavioural problems growing up. Take John’s
story for example, he had issues every since he was young. At only 13,
he already started distributing obscene films and voluntarily caused
hurt. However, in his case, his parents were aware of his behavioural
problems so they took him to the psychiatrist. But even having done
that, it didn’t really help.
“Could the parents have resorted to
other measures to control their son? Or was their son a lost cause?
Could they have done anything to prevent their son from raping his own
sister.
“Even if there was no way they could have prevented this
from happening, how come they have allowed such a terrible thing to
happen in their own house? Why could they not tell that their daughter,
the victim, was hurting and in pain? Surely words don’t have to be
spoken for them to figure out that something was wrong?
“We all
know that it’s hard to keep track of a child’s everyday doings, but
come on, there has to be some level of supervision right?
“I
think these parents are somewhat responsible for their children’s
actions. They could have done more to have prevented all these
unfortunate things from happening.”