Child abuse

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.

Police in Iraklio, Crete, are investigating multiple child abuse allegations against a retired physical education teacher dating back to the late 1980s.

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. 

Authorities arrested a 51-year-old man in Heraklion, Crete after discovering child pornography material on a memory card in his residence. 

The content, spanning from 2006 to 2019, allegedly depicts three minors, now adults aged 20, 24, and 17. 

A 30-year-old man in Thessaloniki was convicted to four years and four months in jail on Wednesday for beating his wife and their three young children. 

Due to repeated abusive behavior, the court ruled that he should serve the sentence until the appeal trial.

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 recent report by UNICEF has uncovered distressing levels of violence inflicted upon children in Bulgaria. Christina de Bruin, UNICEF's Representative in Bulgaria, reveals disturbing statistics to BNR. The findings indicate that every second child in the country has endured some form of violence before reaching adulthood.

Judges returned the case file against Father Antonios Papanikolaou, the founder of the Ark of the World children's charity, which is under investigation for child abuse and financial crimes, to the investigator on Wednesday, requesting further interrogations to be conducted.

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.

“Those involved in such activity will be charged with a host of federal laws, including laws against kidnapping, sex trafficking, child abuse, and the deprivation of civil rights”