00:00The Prime Minister's proclamation that teenagers who, quote, want to behave or misbehave like adults will be treated like adults
00:08by the law, end quote, has raised concern in some quarters, with one child and family psychologist taking the opportunity
00:16to remind everyone of the law.
00:18So I'd like to think that perhaps in her grief, in perhaps her understanding and empathizing so deeply with the
00:27mother in this particular situation, that she has not considered or perhaps forgotten what the law says as it stands.
00:35And I reiterate and I call back to the Children's Act 12 of 2012, which speaks to who qualifies as
00:44a minor and what treatment a minor should receive.
00:47And again, that is anybody under the age of 18. So a minor ought not to be treated as an
00:52adult, except in some very, very specific circumstances in law.
00:58Mr. Joseph stresses that biologically, children are not as developed as adults and as such cannot be held to the
01:06same standard. He's calling for understanding and degrees.
01:09When we have in this discourse as a nation, we need to remember that these are children who brains, their
01:17frontal lobes are not fully developed.
01:19That frontal lobe is the part of the brain responsible for logical thinking and decision making that does not fully
01:26develop until sometimes age 25, 28 and so on.
01:31So they are going to make decisions that are not the most logical decisions and in their best interest.
01:36And so we as adults whose frontal lobes have fully developed, we can't judge children with the same level of
01:45thinking that we possess based on experience and our developed frontal lobe.
01:50The psychologist is also advising against what he describes as a victim blaming mindset.
01:57That you hold the victim of a crime culpable for the crime that has been enacted on them.
02:03So we throw all of the responsibility on the victim, essentially.
02:07And so if you're talking about a minor who is not even culpable for certain actions as a minor,
02:12for us to say that this person know full well what they were doing and they need to be treated
02:18as an adult,
02:19knowing what they're doing is, I think, not understanding the psychology of youth.
02:24And so when we have adults who groom, right, I'm speaking specifically just to that generalization of the idea of
02:33grooming and not an incident.
02:35But when we have adults who groom, it effectively puts blinders on the child because this is the only person
02:43who shows them necessarily the love in the manner in which they are, they can relate to.
02:48He's advising children who have found themselves in difficult situations to seek assistance.
02:55So they can call the Children's Authority hotline, which is 996 or 800-2014.
03:05They can call Chi-Line and Chi-Line's hotline helpline number is 800-4321.
03:14It's 800-4321.
03:18And those hotline numbers are told free.
03:21They can call for free on any phone.
03:24Renasa Cutting, TV6 News.
