Parents can be held accountable for children’s actions - Inspector Mateiwai

Parents are responsible for monitoring their children's activities on their phones if their child is below the age of 18 years, and they can be held accountable if their child says they were unaware if they were wrong.

This was highlighted by the Fiji Police Force Sexual Offence Child Abuse Unit, Inspector Unaisi Mateiwai while speaking at an evangelism programme conducted by the Masu Ga Ministry at Drekena Village in Rewa on Wednesday night.

Inspector Mateiwai talked about the negative impacts of children using phones at a very young age.

Inspector Mateiwai says many sexual offence cases committed by children are based on what they see on phones when they are left alone without the supervision of parents.

She says one report that they had received was a 5-year-old boy raping his 3-year 8-months old sister.

Inspector Mateiwai further says the Court has the authority to convict parents and sentence them to prison if the child said that they were unaware that their actions were wrong.

Mateiwai also reminded parents that before methamphetamine and ice, phones were here first, and parents needed to monitor their children's activities on their mobile phones.

She adds she has been going around Fiji speaking about the continuous increases in the number of cases of sexual offences committed by children, and it is something that the Police cannot fight alone and needs the support of parents and the community.