Child protection advocates are being inundated with requests for advice on how to handle sexually abusive behaviour in children. The Australian Childhood Foundation said there had been a tenfold increase in demand for its therapeutic services. The foundation runs a program in Victoria for children aged between seven and 12 years that exhibit problem sexual behaviour, in which social workers and psychologists work with the families and carers of the children.
It is estimated that between 40 per cent and 90 per cent of sexual offending against children was committed by other children and a drastic increase in therapeutic services for young people displaying sexually aggressive behaviour is needed experts claim. Australian Childhood Foundation chief executive Joe Tucci said: "We've had an increase in number, but even more importantly we've had an increase in the severity of the behaviour. We are now getting kids referred who are doing penetrative acts against other children, using objects -- it's quite serious behaviour."
He said that in about 50 per cent of cases, children had been sexually abused themselves. But in the other half, children had suffered family trauma or exposure to sexually explicit images. The child protection lobby group Bravehearts is also alarmed at the increase in sexually aggressive behaviour in children. "We've been getting a lot more phone calls, exponentially, from schools and childcare centres asking for our assistance dealing with kids perpetrating against other children," said Bravehearts founder Hetty Johnston. Source: Australia Prayer Network Newsletter 4/8/10.

Syria has banned the face-covering veil from the country’s universities to prevent what it sees as a threat to its secular identity, as similar moves in Europe spark cries of discrimination against Muslims. The ban shows a rare point of agreement between Syria's secular, authoritarian government and the democracies of Europe: Both view the niqab as a potentially destabilizing threat. "We have given directives to all universities to ban niqab-wearing women from registering," a government official in Damascus told The Associated Press.
The order affects both public and private universities and aims to protect Syria's secular identity. Hundreds of primary school teachers who were wearing the niqab at government-run schools were transferred last month to administrative jobs. The ban by the Education Ministry, does not affect the hijab, or headscarf, which is far more common in Syria than the niqab's billowing black robes. Syria is the latest in a string of nations from Europe to the Middle East to weigh in on the veil, perhaps the most visible symbol of conservative Islam.  
Veils have also spread in other secular-leaning Arab countries, such as Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon, with Jordan's government trying to discourage them by playing up reports of robbers who wear veils as masks. Turkey bans Muslim headscarves in universities, with many saying attempts to allow them in schools amount to an attack on modern Turkey's secular laws. The issue has been debated across Europe, where France, Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands are considering banning the niqab on the grounds it is degrading to women. Source: Australia Prayer Network Newsletter 9/8/10.

When Charles Cranmill (not real name) walked into the Emergency Room (ER), and promptly collapsed on the floor due to a massive heart attack, the most astounding miracle was about to be witnessed. Cranmill could not be revived even after many efforts by hospital staff. By the time his heart had been stopped for nearly an hour, the call went out for Dr. Dean Thomas to attend him.  
"As I entered the ER it was like a war zone," recounted Thomas. "Here was this lifeless body on a stretcher. His face, his arms, his legs were pitch-black with death. I said, 'Let's just call the code, let's end it because there's no life left.' "But just as Dr. Thomas was walking out of the room, he heard from God. "A voice told me to turn around and pray for that man. I looked down at the body, and I said, 'Lord, what can I pray for this man? He's gone.'  
All of a sudden these words came out, 'Father, I cry out for this man's soul, if he does not know You, raise him from the dead,'" the doctor said. Although the hospital staff was already preparing Cranmill's body for the morgue, Dr. Thomas asked for him to be shocked one more time. When they finally did, Cranmill's heart began to beat perfectly, and he started breathing on his own. Charles Cranmill wasn't a believer before the day he was resurrected, but is now attending church. Source: Australia Prayer Network Newsletter 9/8/10.

The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a study showing that contrary to popular belief, most teens are virgins. The study says that in the 2006-2008 period, 58% of never-married teen girls and 57% of never-married teen boys between the ages of 15 and 19 reported that they had never had sexual intercourse. The numbers have not substantially changed since a similar report was released in 2002. The reason most often cited for abstaining was that pre-marital sex is “against religion or morals.”Source: Australia Prayer Network Newsletter 9/8/10.

A Yearbook published by the National Council of Churches in America lists movements in denominational membership over the previous year. The Episcopal Church actually reported a sharp decrease of 4% and the Presbyterian Church had a 2.4% decrease. Jehovah’s Witnesses, at 1.06 million, showed the greatest growth rate of 2.25% increase. Mormons had a growth rate of 1.56% while the Roman Catholic Church reported a 0.87% increase. The Southern Baptist Convention, reported an increase of 0.22%.   The USA population growth rate was just 1%, so aside from Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Mormons, the other denominations are failing to keep up with the rate of population increase. A survey by the Pew Forum shows that Protestants, who 30 years ago made up two-thirds of the population, are now just a slight majority of 51%. Those identifying as having no religion has risen to just over 16%. Those claiming some religious affiliation is now just 84%. The largest single blocks are the Evangelicals at 26.4%, followed by the Roman Catholics at 23.9%.  
In a separate UN survey in Britain approximately two-thirds of British people now claim no religious affiliation. This stands in stark contrast to the national census in 2001 which reported that 72% of Britons were Christian. The survey went on to call for disestablishing the Church of England because it no longer represents “the religious demography of the country.” Source: Australia Prayer Network Newsletter 21/7/10.

One-third of 15- and 16-year-olds have been reported to Government Child Protection Agencies at least once in their life because of concerns about neglect or abuse, official figures show. And the proportion of 12- to 14-year-olds and 17-year-olds reported is almost as high at 32 per cent. The startling figures may be the highest in the developed world, according to a leading expert on child protection, Dorothy Scott, the director of the Australian Centre for Child Protection at the University of South Australia.
The high reporting rate - which excludes double-counting of children notified more than once - is revealed in a new report by the evaluation and statistics branch of Community Services NSW, now part of the larger Department of Human Services. The report shows steep increases in the proportion of children being reported in every age group since a similar report was done four years ago. But experts question whether the figures indicate the real level of harm, gross over-reporting, or new parenting standards.
Overall more than one in four children under 18, or 26.7 per cent, had information about them kept on a database. Four years earlier 19 per cent of all children under 18 had been reported. Most parents would not know that their children had been reported and their details recorded as only a small proportion of cases is ever investigated. For example, in 2008-09 there were 309,676 reports to the department but only 40,000 received a secondary assessment, and only 10,142 children were eventually found to have experienced ''actual harm''. Source: Australia Prayer Network Newsletter 21/7/10.