And Community and Cultural Affairs Minister Sen. Yvette Swan said a number of young children had died at the hands of adults.

She said: "These deaths have caused a lot of public anguish -- but the deaths themselves are not the entire story.

"In many instances, one would find a history of physical, sexual and in some cases psychological abuse of children.'' Sen. Swan was speaking as the massive 57-page task force report on child abuse -- which contains a total of 52 recommendations -- came up for discussion in the Upper House.

She told Senators that among the consultations by the task force team was a survey of fifth form pupils -- which indicated that a serious child abuse problem existed in Bermuda.

And she said that the recommendations in the report cover dealing not only with the victims of abuse, but with families, abusers and public and private services working in the field.

Sen. Swan explained: "A lot of the recommendations are geared towards helping to prevent the final outcome of death in cases like this.'' She added that research showed that youngsters under 12 tended to confide in their parents, but older children sought advice from friends, teachers and guidance counsellors.

Sen. Swan added that Bermuda's diversity meant a wide range of interpretations of discipline.

She said: "Some religious groups will say `spare the rod and spoil the child' -- but because of this it created difficulties in defining hard and fast child abuse.

"But when you look at what is reported, when the adult's behaviour is inappropriate and causes harm or injury, the child has been abused.'' And she called for more men to become involved in working with youngsters, in a field where professionals were overwhelmingly female, especially in the Police force.

She said: "It was always thought that this was a place women Police officers could be placed but it doesn't always follow. Male children need to have the male officers they can identify with.'' Sen. Milton Scott , Opposition Senate Leader, questioned why it took so long to bring the report forward.

"I wonder how many little children, little boys, little girls, have died because of our inaction,'' he asked.

"It seems to me as if there are far too many examples of documents debated here and in another place which are not dealt with in a timely fashion.'' Sen. Scott added he still had to be convinced of the depth of the United Bermuda Party's commitment to dealing with the problem.

And he said: "If there is one group in our society all of us should care about, it's our children. They may not actually be our children but collectively, at the end of the day, they are all our children.'' Sen. Scott added that one problem he had noted was the cost of housing on the Island and the social problems of overcrowding.

He said a family of five could be living in a one-bedroom apartment because they could not afford the $2,000 minimum a month needed for a three-bedroom home.

But he added that, on the other hand, children whose parents worked two or three jobs to afford a decent-sized home were at risk of being left to "raise themselves''.

Sen. Scott said: "We are not talking about handouts only -- but at the end of the day handouts may be the way we have to go. It's far more important to put money at the front end than to put even more money at the back end.'' Sen. Scott added that he had great respect for Government's Child and Family Services Department -- but said social workers needed adequate funding.

But he added that corporal punishment in schools or as part of the justice system was not part of the answer to problems among the young.

He reminded Senators that Bermuda was covered by the European Convention on Human Rights which dismissed physical punishment as "cruel and inhumane''.

Sen. Scott added there was also the possibility of abuse being carried out by authority figures in the education system from pre-school up.

And he appealed for the public not to turn a blind eye to institutional abuse of children, but to report it to principals and the Education Ministry.

And he called for the reduction of class sizes as a first step to helping young people to learn to behave well.

Victims of abuse often went on to commit similar crimes, Sen. Scott said.

But a fundamental issue the report raised was that there were no accurate statistics reflecting child abuse, he added.

"The statistics are not here because the UBP chose not to compile those statistics and we're all suffering.'' It must also be remembered the individual which had allegedly committed an abuse also had rights.

"We must safeguard those rights. It is a balancing act.'' And he said: "An individual must be given the opportunity to be rehabilitated. If not, then stiff sentences are the order of the day.'' He called for compiling of statistics on incidence of physical and sexual abuse against children.

The task force's second recommendation called for a centralised authority for the maintenance of statistics on child abuse.

Sen. Walwyn Hughes (Ind) said: "We know from this report we do have a problem with child abuse. We don't know the full extent of it. (It is) hard to know exactly what is happening (but) steps are there to provide solid statistics.'' Any moves must utilise some good work already done in this area, he added.

Of the 52 recommendations, he said that at least 27 call for expanding of programmes and/or staff. Ultimately, many of the recommendations would mean increased costs.

The economic strain of implementing these recommendations will be large and the recommendations will need to be "prioritised,'' he said.

He lauded the reports calling for mandatory reporting of acts of abuse.

Sen. Hughes also said that it was disappointing that the Ministry of Education did not participate in the report.

Sen. E.T. (Bob) Richards (UBP) said the report was alarming and that there were very serious problems with the family unit in Bermuda.

"The centre of gravity of all social structures is the family unit,'' he said.

Abuse is linked to drug and alcohol abuse, "these things are very much related,'' he said.

Sen. Richards also said he was not in favour of a new department for collecting statistics on child abuse. Rather, this could be assigned to the existing Statistics Department.

The report reinforces the need for a massive public education programme, Sen.

Alf Oughton (Ind) said.

On mandatory reporting, Sen. Oughton said if such a move were to lead to increased caseloads, then the resources must be found.

He supported the recommendation to adopt the Children Act 1989, of the UK.

He also said the report was not able to accurately assess the level of services available in schools.

Sen. Neletha Butterfield (PLP) said many students were displaying behavioural problems.

She expressed concern that there were no written submissions from the Ministry of Education to the task force, despite the fact that schools are where young people spend many hours of the day.

She pointed to the report which said 1,376 cases of child abuse were referred to Family Services.

"These are the reported cases. We may be looking at 2,000.'' The report called for a survey in five years, the task force began its work more than two years ago, but Sen. Butterfield said the year 2000 may be too long to wait.

Sen. Butterfield asked: "If a child is being abused at home, where do they go?'' "There is no where for them to go because they are dependent on that home for survival.'' She added that the whole community must be seen reporting their suspicions of child abuse for the children's sake.

"We must be concerned with the development of our children. There is a generation of young people out there who need our help.'' Child abuse was damaging the society and the pain and hurt it caused never left the victim, warned Sen. Butterfield.

The report was a clarion call for better parenting skills, she continued.

Parents expected high things from their children and sometimes they beat them when they did not meet those standards and this was also child abuse.

Sen. Butterfield said Government and all the agencies dealing with the problem of abuse had to join hands and decide what was going to be done and how it was going to be done.

Dealing with and healing the problem were long processes so the recommendations contained in the report should be implemented quickly.

She pointed out: "These children are going to be our leaders.'' Sen. Noela Haycock (UBP) said it was a sad day when children were being born and identified at that initial point in their life as being at risk of child abuse.

She noted that drug and alcohol abuse played a role in child abuse but said the important fact was that abused children became abusing parents.

Also important, she continued, was why people -- outside of Government, private agencies and the children themselves -- were not reporting cases of child abuse they probably knew about.

"Physical abuse is not a quiet thing. You can't beat a child without a noise.

Where are the neighbours, family and friends in that case? "If you are aware of abuse you must report it. If you stay quiet then you are condoning this evil crime.'' Sen. Haycock also demanded that child abusers be known under their proper title -- paedophiles.

"We have to stop calling them by their pet names. They are paedophiles.'' It was worse when a parent committed the crime, she noted. "They are monsters. Parents are supposed to be nurturers not destroyers.'' She said parents must make their children aware of what was appropriate behaviour or else their children would be preyed upon.

"Children need to know there is nothing bad enough that they can't tell their parents about.'' Opposition Sen. Terry Lister said the problem of child abuse had almost been ignored for too long.

He added that it was a shame the report had taken so long to be discussed.

"What that actually does is raise doubts about the commitment to solving this problem.'' Sen. Lister said he was sorry Government had not said what recommendations it had implemented and what it had rejected. He said he would like to see a report concerning this come before the Senate.

He said it was good to see the number of staff at the Department of Child and Family Services had been increased but noted that the PLP had been calling for this to happen since 1993.

Senate backs report proposals Sen. Lister said he was disappointed there were no "men of the cloth'' on the committee which looked into the problem when Bermuda was a country with a large number of churches.

It was important to remember that alcohol -- although legal -- had the same terrible effect on families that illegal drugs did when abused. "You cannot dismiss alcohol abuse,'' he said.

Sen. Lister agreed that statistics on the issue should be recorded but added that the individual sources which collected the figures had to make them available to the other agencies involved in fighting the problem.

He noted that the cases of reported abuse had increased during the recession and this pointed to abuse being a problem associated with poverty.

The prison aspect of treating convicted sexual offenders needed to be treated very seriously, he continued, because if inmates failed to get treatment they would only re-offend upon release.

Sen. Lister agreed an intervention team capable of stepping in and helping victims of child abuse was necessary as was adequate funding for kinship care which would encourage the family unit's involvement in the process of recovering from child abuse.

He stressed the need for all Police officers to be able to deal with incidents of child abuse.

They need not be experts, but had to be sensitised to the situation, the victim's trauma and the need to remove the offender from the scene.

He admitted being disappointed at how the Attorney General's Chambers was perceived as being part of the problem of child abuse.

He said it seemed that unless there was a "99.9 percent chance of a conviction'' then the Crown would not prosecute a case of child abuse and the offender would escape scot-free. If this was the case, then the victim would remain at risk.

Sen. Lawrence Scott (UBP) said the problem had always been one that people knew about but did not want to talk about.

He added that implementing the report's recommendations would require a lot of different organisations working together and that would take time.

He was not prepared to take "lock, stock and barrel'' the recommendations included in the Report of the Task Force on Child Abuse.

He said the recommendations were "foreign-based'' and needed to be adapted to Bermuda.

He also said that the report included nothing on what role the church will play in the solution.

He said churches in Bermuda are experiencing an attendance "crescendo'' and that a "more family oriented society'' will emerge.

Sen. Gary Pitman (UBP) said: "We have a responsibility to provide a loving, caring environment. This (task force) report tells us this is not the case in a number of homes in Bermuda.'' Sen. Pitman agreed with the task force's recommendation on mandatory reporting.

Senate President Albert Jackson (Ind) concluded that action on child abuse is integral to the survival of the community.

"It is essential that lives of children and adults must be protected. The tree on which this hangs is the constitution of Bermuda.'' And the Senate is obliged to uphold the provisions of the Constitution, he said.