SPEECH

Intro

There has been one report of child abuse in the space of ten seconds. That’s 6 children per minute. 8460 per day. 3,153,600 children per year. But what exactly is abuse? Child abuse is any action by another person that causes harm to a child. This can be physically, sexually, or even emotionally.
However there's a form of abuse, hidden by its will to do good, that goes on every day in households unreported. This form of abuse has possessed a word that originally meant to train, to regulate, but by non-harmful means. A word that now brings fear into the stomachs of children imagining the fury in their parents eyes. This word is discipline.
Discipline - practice of training people to obey rules or a code of behaviour, using punishment to correct disobedience. These two definitions are distinctly different from each other, one is about treating children with cruelty or violence, the other a way of training someone to be a respectable human being. Yet there is still confusion on which is which. Because discipline becomes abuse when the way of bringing up your child is any action by another person causes harm to to them.

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These two can be further separated on how they are put in action. The types of child abuse are domestic abuse, sexual abuse, neglect abuse, online abuse, physical abuse and emotional abuse. In comparison, the types of discipline are positive discipline, gentle discipline, boundary-based discipline, behaviour modification and emotion coaching. Already there is a massive difference. The word “gentle” to describe discipline and “neglect” to describe abuse.
“But to be feared is to be respected.”
When leading a country, a leader who is trusted by, respected by and compassionate to the people is stronger than a leader who rules on their people's fear, abusing their people’s rights in order to create the perfect country. Some famous leaders who fit those traits are Adolf Hitler, German leader who killed 6 million jewish people to ‘cleanse’ his country, Kim Jong Un, a dictator of a country so oppressed if they don’t cry hard enough at their leader's presence they will get shot, Nicolae Ceaușescu, who lived an opulent life whilst his people were starving. So is being feared really being respected? You might demand the people’s respect by threatening their lives, but in all honesty they will never respect you. The same goes for abuse and discipline.

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I know many of you are familiar with discipline during the years of growing up. I bet many of you are familiar with the certain look in your mother’s eye when you say something out of line, or the subtle movement of your father’s hand on his belt when you haven’t done what he asked. For the pre-millennials, these things were completely normal. These methods of discipline are no longer appropriate. But the number one excuse I see is “Well I turned out alright.”
I have one answer to that. If you were hit when you were younger, and you think hitting a child is appropriate, then you didn’t really turn out alright. Constantly on the television we hear “Children who are abused are more likely to abuse their children”, and many of you seem to not realise that they’re not just talking about the kids who are sexually abused, emotionally abused etc. They’re talking about the children who were slapped, whipped, and spanked for being naughty. People don’t realise because it's under the word discipline. It's completely understandable, this idea of hurting children for discipline stays with the children hurt with discipline, because it is all they ever knew, but I am here to end this abusive cycle. Children are more likely to be abused by family, than anyone else. Biological mothers are more likely to abuse their child more than biological fathers.

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Do you know why? Because they do it in the name of love, in the name of righteousness, in the name of discipline. Sometimes a mother’s tough love is wrong.
A quote, “It makes you wonder where you went so wrong that your mother couldn’t love you the way you have always been taught that mothers should.”
Sometimes a mother’s tough love is not love at all but a greedy attempt to gain control of a defenceless child, a child taught by society that a mother’s love is the strongest, most unconditional love to exist. A child left to wonder that not even they are worthy of this type of love, that somehow the one universal thing that could love a whole world managed to skip them.

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You see, your attempt of discipline leaves physical and emotional scars on children. These children grow up fearing people, angry, depressed, covered in self inflicted wounds, misunderstood, disturbed, and worst of all, abusers. Do you not see how you are potentially destroying the future generations of the world by your violent means of teaching them to be respectable? How are they to learn what respect is from fear and violence? Respect is a deep admiration for someone, not a deep rooted fear from it being forced upon them! Respect is earned, not demanded! And if you want your child to be respectful, you teach them how to be respected, not how to demand it.
Because ultimately that is what you’re doing. 5 to 6 children die a day as a result of abuse. As a result of discipline.

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But you can stop this. We as the human race have so much power, our minds are capable of amazing things, our growing intelligence and knowledge is flowing with the children of the world, but its at risk because of the abuser. When you think a child is in danger, call 0808 800 5000, and you might just their life. You might just save the curer of cancer, the motivator to get world peace, the inventor of wonderful things you couldn't possibly imagine.
There are so many ways in which you can support these children, by being there for them, giving them a safe space, ensuring they have escape routes when it’s all too much, providing them with the help and care they need. The list goes on. You, an amazing spectacular human being, can save the world's children just by dialing a number.

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During the space of this speech, 18 accounts of child abuse have been reported. But how many children haven’t been saved? How many are getting disciplined?
Thank you for listening.

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