boys who have little respect for people, a top social worker told the National Symposium on Children At Risk yesterday.

"We're starting to see a group of males -- boys eight to 12-years-old -- who are very angry,'' Mrs. Glenda Edwards of Family Services said. "They have been emotionally neglected.'' The children were "bringing themselves up and using peers as role models.

They have little respect for one another ... There's a whole group no one seems to care about.'' Mrs. Edwards said parental neglect was the biggest problem faced by Family Services.

But it wasn't the only one identified in a morning session at The Princess Hotel that exposed a vast range of family and social ills.

Police Insp. Gertrude Barker said Police were deluged with domestic disputes -- an average of three a day.

Some 219 children in 1991 were sexually assaulted.

And the female, she said, had become "a battering object''. Of 91 physical abuse reports last year, 81 were against women.

Mrs. Edwards said young children were the biggest target for beatings. In particular, she identified girls 10- to 14-years-old.

Bermuda, she added, had a huge problem with unlawful carnal knowledge. All of the speakers said Bermuda had a problem with child abuse.

Paediatrian Dr. Peter Perinchief said the rules governing evidence in court made it difficult to successfully prosecute people who beat, and sometimes even murder, children.

Insp. Barker said families protect child abusers. Sometimes they ask Police not to pursue carnalists further because they had apologised for impregnating daughters.

She said Police don't want to hear parents asking for no action on cases of sexual abuse. "Let the law decide,'' she said.

Lack of cooperation reduced the number of convictions to 45 out of 219 reported cases.

Mrs. Edwards intimated the problem was made more difficult because physicians do not appear to cooperate. She said very few of them report cases of abuse.

"If there is a big problem one would expect more doctors to report it,'' she said.

Dr. Perinchief said Bermuda was fighting a strong historical legacy in coming to grips with child abuse. Animals were protected in law before children. And when they were, it was to recognise them as property.

Legislators shied away from dealing with problems in the home because they were "too difficult, too private.'' Dr. Perinchief defined child abuse as "the difference between a hand on the bottom and a fist in the face.'' He suggested Bermuda was no better than the United States where a 1985 survey estimated 10 percent of boys and 20 percent of girls were abused.

A breakdown of abuse cases showed physical abuse affecting 25 percent of reported cases, emotional abuse 17 percent and sexual abuse six percent.

Neglect, she said, was the most common form of abuse.

While Bermuda's existing Child Protection Act was "not bad'', Dr. Perinchief maintained it was ineffective as a deterrent.

A convicted child abuser is subject to a $120 fine. A person who abandons a child can be fined $60. And a molester is subject to a maximum fine of $48 or three months.

Mrs. Edwards said Family Services -- which operates almost exclusively as a child protection service -- had 320 referrals in 1991. Of that total, two thirds involved high risk children exposed to either sexual or physical abuse or neglect.