The shock and sadness of the'Jung In-i Incident' in which a 16-month-old infant died due to the abuse of her adoptive parents did not go away, but a terrible child abuse incident occurred at the beginning of the new year.



An aunt and aunt hit her nephew, a ten-year-old woman, mercilessly, and even the so-called'water torture' abuse, in which her aunt and her aunt repeatedly emptied the bathtub filled with water, eventually killed her.



Yesterday (8th) at around 12:35 PM, Mr. A's nephew, B (10), was found unconscious at the house of Mr. A (40s) in Gorim-dong, Cheoin-gu, Yongin-si, Gyeonggi-do.



A couple reported that "the child fell into the bathtub and couldn't breathe."



However, bruises were found all over Ms. B's body, and the police, who were investigating at the report of hospital medical staff and paramedics, received a statement from Mr. A that he "hit the child several times".



The police arrested the couple on suspicion of child abuse and investigated the death and abuse of Miss B. They said, "I hit him for about two days because he couldn't listen to and urinate well, and yesterday morning, as a discipline, I put water in the bathtub and I put it in and out of the water a few times.”



Mrs. A and Mrs. A stopped the act and called 911 when Ms. B did not breathe and became droopy.



The exact cause of death of Miss B has not yet been revealed, but it is clearly revealed through police investigation that the assault and water torture of the aunt and aunt have nothing to do with death.



Dozens of children die each year from abuse.



According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the number of child abuse deaths was 14 in 2014, 16 in 2015, 36 in 2016, 38 in 2017, 28 in 2018, and 42 in 2019.



Shin Won-young (then 7 years old), who passed away in February 2016 after being confined in the bathroom of his house in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi-do, for about three months by his stepmother and his father, and his mother in Ulsan in June 2015. The victims include a 30-month-old girl who was beaten and killed, and Joon-hee Ko (then 5 years old), who died after being ruthlessly assaulted by her father and mother in April 2017.



The'Jung Ini Incident', which earned the public's resentment due to the terrible abuses of adoptive parents, took place in October last year, just four months ago, and Jung In-i, the victim, is counted as a child abuse death in 2020.



To prevent recurring child abuse cases, experts diagnosed that it was necessary to establish a system to monitor and prevent abuse, and to reestablish awareness of discipline.



Gong Hye-jeong, the representative of the Korea Child Abuse Prevention Association, said, "People are angry at seeing child abuse incidents reported in the media, but instead of taking it as an opportunity to reflect on their attitudes when dealing with children,'That person is originally a devil and my actions are justified. They tend to think of it as'discipline'," he said. "Generally, they don't regard their abuse as abuse, and they repeat it more and more, leading to terrible crimes."



He emphasized, "Like providing sex education and gender equality education to children, it is necessary to educate parents long before they become parents to improve the awareness of discipline and abuse."



Sookmyung Women's University Child Welfare Department Professor Jeong Seon-ah said, "It is one of the causes of repeated abuse cases that the idea that children should be punished and corrected if they do something wrong is one of the reasons for repeating abuse cases. "It is easy to lead to abuse if you force your child to make a judgment based on the experience of your child and tell him you are wrong."



“As a situation where awareness of discipline needs to be re-established, improving the awareness of parents or guardians is the most important, but educational institutions, including schools, and administrative agencies need to reinforce a system that allows them to pay more attention to problems in the home and manage them remotely.” I ordered it.



(Photo = Yonhap News)