France targets incest for first time in national campaign

PARIS: The French government launched a nationwide campaign to raise awareness of sexual violence against children on Tuesday, for the first time mentioning incest which has been a taboo subject in public debate.

Messages and videos will be posted on social media and placed in media, billboards and movie theatres. A TV campaign will be broadcast at half-time during a France match at the ongoing Rugby World Cup.

Charlotte Caubel, junior minister in charge of child issues, said she had wanted a hard-hitting campaign similar to those on the prevention of road deaths that would “punch our fellow citizens in the gut”.

“It´s the first time that the government uses the word ´incest´ in a campaign, the first time it mentions sexual violence inside families,” she told AFP. The previous government campaign against sexual violence targeting children dates back to 2002.

An estimated 160,000 children are victims of sexual abuse in France every year, while associations say that one in every 10 adults in France has experienced incest. “This means you meet people every day who were victims of incest or who committed incest,” Caubel said.

By the end of the campaign “nobody will be able to say ´I didn´t know´”, she said. “This must become everybody´s fight.” Incest in France -- defined as sexual relations of a person with a parent, child, grandparent, grandchild, sibling or half-sibling -- is legal as long as it occurs between consenting adults.