Not just Aunty: don’t forget the family

Isn’t it time we, as a society, widened our focus when we consider and respond to child abuse?

Dave Lee Travis, stalwart of BBC youth and popular viewing in the 70s and 80s, was sentenced on 26 September, after being found guilty of sexual assault.

He was given a three-month suspended sentence for assaulting a researcher on one of his shows.

It’s hard to imagine that what she has suffered or been through since then has in any way been ‘suspended’, apart from her belief in the criminal justice system perhaps…

But Dave Lee Travis is just the most recent example of a string of now shamed BBC entertainers: most famously Jimmy Savile, as well as Rolf Harris and Stuart Hall.

Understandably much of the focus in the media has been on the role of the BBC.

It sits in our collective psyche as an important institution; beloved “Aunty” – an honorary family member – has essentially let down a generation.

It has wittingly or unwittingly sanctioned crimes that took place against vulnerable people.

And it has made a generation of viewers reconsider the nature of those programmes and celebrities that – alongside schooling and friends – made up the weft and warp of their childhoods.

But think about it – isn’t it time we, as a society, widened our focus when we consider and respond to child abuse?

Any perpetrator of this crime needs to be brought to justice.

Yet one of the most enduring institutions of all – the family – is overlooked in this albeit welcome exposure of abuse in our different institutions.

The Office of the Children’s Commissioner recently launched an inquiry into child sexual abuse in a family environment.

You are unlikely to have heard about this unless you follow these issues relatively closely or you’re an early riser.

It received scant coverage on Radio 4 at around 5.35 am on Thursday 3 July then it sank with very little trace.

This is an important inquiry that needs everyone’s attention, not just from professionals and people with a statutory role or function…

But without the celebrity status to give it a profile or the whiffs of political scandal that are following the Home Secretary’s attempts to launch an inquiry into this issue, nobody will find it important or interesting.

But as a society we really need to.

If Top of the Pops, Jim’ll Fix It, and It’s a Knockout were a favourite part of your childhood and teens you’ll know the feeling of shock, disgust and often disbelief that these ‘friendly’ people you ‘knew’ did these things.

Those feelings can give everyone a window into how it must feel to live with the knowledge and memories of family abuse and what has gone on behind closed doors.

It is possible that very little will remain uncontaminated.

Just as more abuse “scandals” continue to emerge and shock us further, so those realising and confronting that they were abused have to come to terms frequent revelations and reminders.

What happened to many, many individuals at the hands of “Aunty” needs to be fully investigated.

And what has happened to probably hundreds of thousands of children at the hands of their uncle, father, brother, grandfather, family friend, parent, cousin also needs to be investigated.

Childhood is a series of formative experiences and routines.

Our memories of favourite TV programmes have been altered with the revelations of the past couple of years.

Translate that in to the feelings of someone whose memories of their childhood have been completely turned on their head by family abuse.

If you have an urgent concern about a child protection issue, you should contact your local police or social services. Adults can also call the NSPCC child protection helpline on 0808 800 5000. Children can call Childline on 0800 1111.

Adapted from a blog on anewselfwritten