The Spanish government has passed a decree that makes reporting of violence against children mandatory for everyone who monitors it, and extends the time frame for victims to submit reports of violence to their childhood.
About 38,000 minors were exposed to violence in Spain in 2018, but government estimates indicate that one out of every five crimes of violence against children is being reported, which means that the number can be five times that.
"It is an essential step for current and future generations of children and adolescents to grow up without violence," Pablo Iglesias, the second deputy prime minister responsible for social rights, said after a cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
Under current legislation, when a victim of violence reaches the age of 18, he has only a limited amount of time to report the violence he was subjected to, ranging from five to twenty years, depending on the severity of the violence.
In the new legislation, the calculation of this period of time is extended beyond the victim's thirty years.