Adverse childhood experiences

Young people are facing an unprecedented wave of violence and sexual abuse driven by war, climate change, hunger, and displacement, the U.N.'s special representative on violence against children has warned.

One in 10 children aged up to 3 years who arrive at the outpatient clinics of the National Health System (ESY) hospitals with injuries are victims of abuse. One in four fractures that occur in children under the age of 3 is, according to research by the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (EKPA), also due to abuse. 

A second allegation of child sexual abuse has been made against a 50-year-old museum guard on the Dodecanese island of Nisyros, who was suspended from duty on Thursday after the first complaint came to light.

Police have arrested an 18-year-old student in Piraeus on suspicion of possessing child abuse material and offering it for sale.

Acting on information from foreign authorities, prosecutors began investigating the individual, who was offering sexual abuse material on the internet in exchange for payment or similar abuse material.

A 47-year-old doctor was arrested in Larissa on Wednesday for allegedly sexually abusing his three-year-old daughter, following a complaint filed by the Smile of the Child charity.

According to the police investigation, the accused allegedly sexually abused his daughter while inside his car.

The year 2023 has witnessed a striking trend in appointments to psychologists and psychiatrists in Türkiye, reflecting a collective response to challenging times, such as the devastating earthquakes witnessed last year and ongoing economic hardships.

Complaints about illegal content on the Internet increased 18.5% in 2023, compared with the previous year, with most of them relating to financial fraud, according to data released on Wednesday by SafeLine.gr, the Greek Safer Internet Center of the Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas.

A 42-year-old man was arrested in Athens on Saturday for torturing and abusing a 21-year-old woman and a 25-year-old man who are intellectually disabled, and posting the abuse online.

The suspect, who was arrested by officers from the Anti-Racist Violence Unit, is accused of causing bodily harm, verbal abuse and pimping, as well as breaching the weapons act.

Interpol has ended a two-year global operation to catch criminals running networks of websites with child sexual abuse material designed to generate advertising profits.

A helpline that aims to help prevent and deal with violence within the family in the post-quarantine period is being jointly set up by the SOS Children's Villages social center and the City of Athens.

According to the center's director Giorgos Protopapas, "all this pressure that people are under will show in due course."