Children at Risk and Their Developments
The opportunities should be provided for every individual in the world so that they can use their rights of being born healthily, living healthily, using the skills they have and the self-realization. Both the families and the institutions related to the children are responsible for providing such opportunities. Therefore, the precautions should be taken against the child neglect and abuse and it should be turned into a governmental policy in order to raise physically and mentally healthy individuals in the society (Koçtürk and Yılmaz, 2018). Today, the families and children are influenced due to some problems encountered. Especially, such a situation influences the development of children negatively (Nalbant and Babaoğlan, 2016). The problems the individuals have when they are children can cause the emergence of problems in the family lives of those children in the latter periods of their life. Therefore, the problems the children encounter turn into not only an individual but also a social problem (Karakaş and Çevik, 2016). In a study carried out by Nalbant and Babaoğlan (2016) it was determined that the children at risk had problems in many different topics. As a result of the study, the children whose family unity was impaired and who had problems in a circle of friends, and had problems with the school board and the lessons in the school environment were regarded as the children at risk. It was also found that the determined families were not sufficient in supporting their children and controlling them in the school environment. In the study, it was also detected that the children generally shared the problems they had with their mothers. Further, it was determined in the study that in case the children could not share their problems with their mothers, they shared them with their siblings, friends or teachers, but it was also found that some children did not share their problems with anybody (Nalbant and Babaoğlan, 2016).
It is observed that the children at risk firstly find themselves in the street, then in the prisons. Firstly, providing the continuity of the children’s attendance to school is very important for the prevention of such a situation. As a result of children’s being in the same environment with a child who is pushed into crime, spending time with him and sharing something together increase the possibility of the children’s being pushed into crime, as well. It should not be ignored that the children, who move away from the school environment and meet cigarette and alcohol at early ages, can turn into crime easily (Öztürk Çopur, Ulutaşdemir, and Balsak, 2015). The prevention of those negativities is carried out via giving the necessary trainings. Therefore, the children will grow up as those who are aware of their rights and responsibilities, can determine the borders of their limitations, stand on their own feet and believe in themselves even if they do not experience any negative situation. In addition, in order to prevent the negative situations, it is very important to give a place to the educational items defining the negativity of those situations via the frequently used visual media or communication channels (Kır, 2013).
Children’s spending their lives healthily and in a good way forms the basis and the future of the society they live in. Therefore, it crucial to determine the problems the children encounter and take the necessary measures for those problems. The starting process of the child protection in the modern sense falls with the early times of the industrial revolution. In this period, as a result of the children’s employment for heavy works, the necessity of the child protection appeared and the first social policy measures were taken. In this process some regulations were made such as a decrease in the children’s working hours. In the latter periods, it was considered that the children should have the rights just like the adults and Declaration of the Rights of the Child was interiorized and then this declaration was regulated internationally (Karakaş and Çevik, 2016). When the human rights are considered, it is clear that the child rights are the most basic of all. Along with the child rights, the necessary sensitivity should be displayed in order to protect the children’s both physical and mental health and raise them with the conscious that they are the future of their countries (Yalçın, Bay and Ekmekçioğlu, 2014). The children at risk were explained below by dividing them into the following categories; children in need of protection, children living in the streets and working, abused and neglected children, children committing a crime and being pushed into crime, children exposing to violence, children immigrated due to war, disadvantaged children in terms of socio-economic status, children with chronic diseases, disabled children and children of divorced families.