Another young individual said, “I remember when I was very young, seven or eight, and I was nearly run over twice by the same person. Even though I had two witnesses the police said they couldn’t do anything as I was too young.”

Do the guilty only get prosecuted if the victim is an adult?

There are so many ways in which a young person can be better protected, we could protest, we could start riots as that is one of the famous ways which people use nowadays. We could even write letters to the government asking them to improve the existing laws. All of that is 100% possible but what is the proper way we can protect young people in a safe way and for them to be more aware?

We believe that one way is by speaking out, holding debates of what different people think and having a discussion of why people think that? The professionals have the child protection knowledge and we are given actions however what if we also had the knowledge? Do we believe that in order for young people and their families to protect young people better, they too would also need to be aware of the different laws and why the child protection system may follow certain procedures?

Ideally we should give young people a voice so they can speak about how they feel and what they have witnessed. We should support them throughout their healing process and also after so that they are not left alone and are given the help they need in order to be and feel safe such as counselling or independent living.

As young people, we can achieve anything if we want it badly enough. We need to think about our future, we need to visualise it every day and know if we try hard enough, we will be listened to and we will be better protected.