《卫报》关于学校性虐待程度的调查结果需要紧急、有针对性的应对措施。数据显示，英格兰和威尔士每年在校舍发生多起强奸案，这令人难以理解。然而，这就是2021年至去年期间信息自由对警察部队的要求。除了罪行的严重性之外，许多受害者的年轻人也令人不安。学校内或学校附近发生了超过8，500起针对13岁以下儿童的性犯罪，其中大多数是女孩。
The Guardian’s findings about the extent of sexual abuse in schools require an urgent, calibrated response. Data revealing multiple rapes committed each year on school premises in England and Wales is hard to comprehend. Yet this is what freedom of information requests to police forces, covering the period from 2021 until last year, have revealed. As well as the severity of the offences, the youth of many of the victims is disturbing. More than 8,500 sexual offences at or near schools were committed against under-13s, most of them girls.
有关肇事者的数据存在差距，包括他们的年龄和性别。虽然绝大多数此类行为是由男孩实施的，但我们不知道确切的比例，也不知道实施虐待的人与成为目标的人之间是否存在年龄差距。43支警察部队中只有33支分享了他们的数据，这意味着包括苏格兰在内的大片地区没有代表。但无论具体细节如何，考虑到这些都是报告，而不是定罪，调查结果都令人深感沮丧。
Data about perpetrators contains gaps, including their age and sex. While the overwhelming majority of such acts are carried out by boys, we don’t know the exact proportion, nor if there is an age gap between those carrying out abuse and those being targeted. Only 33 out of 43 police forces shared their data, meaning that large areas including Scotland are not represented. But whatever the exact details, and allowing for the fact that these are reports, not convictions, the findings are deeply dismaying.
代理警察局长贝基·里格斯（Becky Riggs）领导国家警察局长委员会的儿童保护和虐待调查，他认为这些数字可能反映了报告性虐待的意愿增加，而不是发生更多虐待事件，必须认真对待。与此同时，仍有数目不详的袭击事件没有报告。与过去的精确比较是不可能的，因为没有等效的数据集。在一个议员委员会建议部长们将学校性虐待作为“立即的政策优先事项”十年后，可以说的是，这个问题并没有消失;一些专家认为，情况正在变得更糟。
The suggestion by the acting chief constable Becky Riggs, who leads on child protection and abuse investigation for the National Police Chiefs’ Council, that the figures could reflect an increased willingness to report sexual abuse rather than more abuse taking place, must be taken seriously. At the same time, an unknown number of assaults continue to go unreported. Exact comparisons with the past are not possible since there is no equivalent dataset. What can be said, 10 years after a committee of MPs recommended that ministers should make sexual abuse in schools an “immediate policy priority”, is that the problem has not gone away; some experts believe that it is getting worse.
到目前为止，对这个问题的反应依赖于三个主要工具。一是促进性和人际关系教育。学校中基于图像的虐待规模需要进一步调查，但周一关于全球人工智能儿童性虐待材料大幅增加的警告表明，需要一门跟上技术变革的课程。第二个工具是在线安全法，包括年龄验证、对色情内容更严格的限制，以及凯尔·斯塔默爵士政府承诺禁止16岁以下青少年使用智能手机。第三是刑事司法系统，以及为改善警察和检察官处理受害者的方式而做出的持续努力。
The response to the problem so far has relied on three main tools. One is the promotion of sex and relationships education. The scale of image-based abuse in schools requires further investigation, but Monday’s warning of a huge rise in AI child sexual abuse material globally points to the need for a curriculum that keeps abreast of technological change. The second tool is online safety laws including age verification, tighter restrictions on pornography, and the pledge by Sir Keir Starmer’s government to place smartphones off-limits for under-16s. The third is the criminal justice system, and ongoing efforts to improve the way that police and prosecutors deal with victims.
部长们如果要有机会实现将暴力侵害妇女和女孩行为减少一半的目标，就需要所有这些措施发挥作用。但严重的资源和能力问题正在阻碍法院和监狱，而色情制品监管需要得到执行和讨论。虽然活动人士充满希望，但需要衡量效果。在人际关系教育中，良好的意图绝不能与效果混淆。为了做出改变，学校需要投资、培训和评估。
Ministers will need all these to work if they are to have any chance of meeting their goal of halving violence against women and girls. But acute resource and capacity problems are hampering courts and prisons, while pornography regulation needs to be enforced as well as discussed. While campaigners are hopeful, effects need to be measured. In relationships education, good intentions must not be confused with effects. To make a difference, schools need investment, training and evaluation.
这个问题不能留给老师来解决;家长也应该与年轻人讨论这些问题。政客们必须勇敢。许多国家的右翼和极右翼政党对性犯罪的关注使自由派陷入了困境，一些人担心，通过谈论性犯罪，他们可能会加剧一种煽动不和和移民替罪羊的叙事。其他孩子虐待孩子是一个令人不安的话题，但移开目光是所有选择中最糟糕的。作为一个社会，我们有责任让年轻人应对这个问题。
This problem cannot be left to teachers to deal with; parents should also discuss these issues with young people. And politicians will have to be brave. The focus on sexual crimes by rightwing and far-right parties in many countries places liberals in a difficult position, with some fearful that by talking about them, they risk adding to a narrative that sows discord and scapegoats immigrants. The abuse of children by other children is an upsetting subject, but looking away is the worst of all options. As a society, we owe it to young people to deal with it.