• Emotional abuse
• Neglect
• Sentencing

What is child abuse?

In short, child abuse is when anyone under the age of 18 is not being looked after correctly or facing harm. There are four primary forms of child abuse, which include:

• Physical abuse
• Emotional abuse
• Sexual abuse
• Neglect

This article will explore these areas and give key examples to help identify child abuse.

Sexual child abuse.

There are two separate types of child sexual abuse. These are as follows:

Contact abuse

This abuse involves some form of sexual physicality, including (but not limited to):

• Using a body part to rape or penetrate a child.
• Touching any part of a child’s body sexually, regardless of whether the child is clothed.
• Making a child partake in sexual activities.
• Forcing a child to undress or touch someone else.
• Grooming a child.

Non-contact abuse

This abuse involves exposing a child to sexual content. Some examples are:

• Showing a child pornography.
• Making a child masturbate.
• Forcing a child to take part in, view or share sexual images or videos.
• Making, viewing or sharing sexual images or videos of children.
• Exposing or flashing a child.
• Teaching or encouraging a child to behave in a sexually inappropriate way.
• Forcing a child to watch a sexual act.

Physical child abuse.

Physical abuse occurs when someone physically harms a child or young person intentionally. Examples of this include:

Emotional child abuse.

Emotional abuse comes in multiple ways. The impact of the abuse can have a dramatic effect on a child’s life. For example, emotional abuse can harm a child’s self-confidence or how well they fit in at school.

Forms of emotional abuse include:

• Making a child feel unloved or worthless.
• Unfairly blaming a child.
• Cyber-bullying a child. 
• Making a child feel frightened.
• A child witnessing the abuse of others. For example, a child witnessing domestic violence.