The number of children under 18 who were suspected of being abused and referred by police to child guidance centers across the country in 2016 marked a record of 54,227, up by 46.5% from the previous year. The number has increased for 12 straight years since 2004 when police began keepin records on the matter. This was learned from the National Police Agency. The number of perpetrators who were prosecuted on the charge of inflicting bodily harm was 1,113 (up 31.1%) and the number of victimized children 1,108 (up 29.9%), both a record high. “Growing public awareness of child abuse has contributed to people’s reporting incidents, and the police have responded more actively to such cases,” said an NPA official in charge of child abuse.

Seventy percent of all cases referred to child guidance centers were for psychological abuse such as verbal abuse against children (37,183 children, up 53.9%). Of the 37,183 children, 24,998 (up 48.7%) of them suffered mentally on account of exposure to domestic violence by their parents against family members, followed by physical abuse (11,165 children, up 35.2%), child neglect such as not feeding children (5,628 children, up 27%), and sexual abuse (251 children, up 46.8%).

Of the 1,113 perpetrators, 884 (80%) were arrested for physical abuse, followed by sexual abuse (163), psychological abuse (36), and child neglect (30). Sixty-seven children were killed or died from abuse.

On March 9, the NPA announced that police across the country arrested a total of 1,531 people on the charge of child pornography in 2,097 cases and 1,313 children were victimized in 2016. Each number marked a record high.

Of the 2,097 cases, perpetrators had victims send naked selfies via email (36.6%), took sneak photos of children (32.4%), and engaged in sexcual misconduct with children.(14.2%). (Abridged)