Parliamentary Front aims to combat early sexualization

A Parliamentary Front against the Early Sexualization of Children and Adolescents will be launched shortly in the Chamber of Deputies. Federal deputy Messias Donato (Republicanos/ES) obtained the support of 225 federal deputies for the creation of the parliamentary group that intends to sensitize, raise awareness and combat “any act that promotes early sexualization and affects the gender formation of children and adolescents” .

“We want to sensitize and mobilize parliamentarians and the Chamber of Deputies to debate and monitor public policies to protect the physical, mental and moral integrity for the healthy and harmonious development of children and adolescents”, said Donato.

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The parliamentary fronts in the National Congress are associations of parliamentarians from various parties to debate issues of interest to society. On this specific front, parliamentarians can promote meetings, debates and present projects against early sexualization.

With the support of at least 198 deputies, the Front needs to follow some steps to be installed. The author of the request will create the bylaws, carry out the official installation, prepare the minutes and, subsequently, forward all documentation to the Board of Directors of the Chamber.

On the last 17th, there was a pre-launch of the Front with the presence of Senator Damares Alves (Republicanos-DF), other parliamentarians and representatives of childhood defense associations. The event featured a lecture by Margarida Ferraz, co-founder and vice-president of the Association for the Promotion of Sexual Abuse Prevention and Victim Support (SFPPP) – a Portuguese NGO.

According to Margarida, “one in five children is sexually abused”. The specialist also stated that, in each lecture given by her, there are always cases of “children who say they are abused by their mother, by their father”. She reinforced that the NGO’s mission with each child is “to teach that he has every right to play, wherever he may, but that his body is not a toy in an adult’s hand”.

Eroticization and Early Sexualization

Sensual scenes in soap operas or movies, song lyrics that use pejorative terms related to sexuality and the sexual act itself are increasingly available to children. And premature exposure to these contents and other stimuli is called early eroticization.

On the other hand, early sexualization is an action that can be understood as an adultization of the child, when third parties – close people or even the media content accessible to the child – bring sexual connotations to elements of the child’s universe or else turn adult elements and related to sexuality objects of desire for the little ones, such as more sensual clothes, for example.

“Children and adolescents are not guinea pigs and must be treated as an absolute priority, as required by article 227 of the Federal Constitution. That is why we have been working to discuss the matter in committees, whether through formal sessions, public hearings, discussion of proposals and also alerting the population in our speeches in the Plenary and on social networks”, said the deputy.

By pointing out that early sexualization is “harmful for the full development of children”, Donato stated that the stimuli for this to occur can occur “in a veiled and/or cunning way in social media, in political-ideological actions [disfarçadas] of socio-educational activities inserted in the social environment and even within the family, violating the right to respect, to the development of the human person, in particular, their sexuality”.

The parliamentarian said that in May a session will be held in the Chamber of Deputies, together with federal deputy Amanda Gentil (PP-MA), to discuss child sexual abuse.

bills

Dozens of bills are pending in the Chamber that address the early sexualization and gender formation of children and adolescents.

One of the most recent projects was PL 192/2023, presented by deputy Kim Kataguiri (União-SP), which criminalizes the conduct of people who encourage or allow sex change in children or adolescents. The proposal, which will still be sent to the thematic commissions, intends to insert the measure in the Statute of Children and Adolescents.

Deputy Donato informed that he will be co-author of PL 192/2023, and also of PLs 204/2023 and 269/2023, which deal with the gender formation of children and adolescents.

Other projects that the deputy mentioned as important for the protection of children are PL 4319/2020, which increases the penalties imposed on crimes of rape of vulnerable people and virtual pedophilia, and PL 2710/2022, which creates the national register of information on -treatment and sexual abuse practiced against children in kindergartens and preschools of early childhood education. In addition to PL 1883/2019 and PL 3976/2020, all on the defense of the rights of children and adolescents. All proposals are awaiting analysis by the committees and the plenary. To become law, they need to be approved by deputies and senators and subsequently sanctioned by the President of the Republic.