Director’s note

School should be both educational and upbringing institution – any violence is unacceptable

In recent days the whole country was strongly impressed by the reports about violent behavior of students towards the teacher and violent response of that teacher towards students. It seems that the public is polarized in the "us and them" way and that the story of one incident in Cakovec school has taken considerably larger proportions. There are public discussions about the rights of the children and the teachers, about the needs, rules, support or lack of support, and it is not good that some teachers even labelled children as bullies, which creates lynching atmosphere against these children and their parents. Any hate speech in public space is not acceptable.
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How to act preventively in order to help children and youth at risk of suicide

Today, on 10 September is World Suicide Prevention Day, on the initiative of the International Association for Suicide Prevention and the World Health Organization.To many people, death is a taboo theme, something they do not like to talk or think about, something they hope will never hit them, their loved ones, family or friends, even though they know it is impossible to avoid it. If we just have to think about mortality, many will imagine peaceful death in a daunting age, without pain and suffering. However, when death is linked to aggression, or suicide, they are subjected to various unpleasant emotions.
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Why I support abolishing the statute of limitations for the criminal offense of sexual abuse of children

I support the proposal to abolish the statute of limitations for the criminal offenses of sexual abuse of children and I am pleased that recently a thematic session on of this initiative was held in Parliament. Current treatment for sexual abusers of children is too lenient. Low penalties, probation sentences, or community service work are encouraging the abusers to repeat the offense and discourage other victims to come forward and report violence.
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Every form of physical punishment is violence against children and it is forbidden

International No Hitting Day for Children is celebrated throughout the world  with occasional educational warnings of the dangers of physical punishment on this day, April 30th. Everyday practice and research such as this latest research Brave phone show, however, that many parents still use methods of corporal punishment of children and that they do not see anything controversial, often without knowing it violates the law.
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Achievements of the Child and Youth Protection Centre in the Past 15 years

Today we celebrated 15 years of our Centre work. I want to say thank you to all those who contributed to our celebration and supported our work. Special thanks to the children and youth in our Children and Youth Committees and the school children who sent their material and messages to adults, who authentically helped us to clearly present the message of our Centre's endeavours. Their messages about what they need and expect from parents and adults touched all present guests in the Renaissance Hall of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts. Now I want to briefly present our Centre's work in the past 15 years:

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When does the child need the help of a mental professional?

We have noticed that parents sometimes hesitate to seek professional help for their child and their family. In our culture, contacting a psychologist or a psychiatrist is sometimes seen in a negative light. Parents may be judged by others that something is wrong with them or with their child, that they are unable to solve the problem themselves, and similar. Such attitudes may cause the parents to feel shame and resistance, they may develop anger towards their child who 'causes problems' and parents may start taking their child's psychological difficulties personally.

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SCREEN TIME: First national study about pre-school children in front of screens

At the time of our grandparents, it was only a TV set, and only for those who could afford it. Today, there are so many screens around us that professionals cannot count them. That is the reason why the expression Screen Time has been introduced. It is the total time someone spends in front of a screen, be it a TV set, laptop, PC, mobile phone, tablet, video game console, or something else. Besides the time we spend in front of screens, we are surrounded by them all the time, whether we want it or not. Screens around us overwhelm our everyday lives with screen saturation, which is another important notion in this study area.

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