A Man Was Caught Forcibly Kissing A Little Boy In A Mall But That's Not The Worst Part
The video showing a man forcefully kissing a little boy who was driving a battery-operated car went viral earlier this week.
By Sadho Ram — 09 Sep 2015, 05:47 PM
Earlier this week, on 7 September, a YouTube video showed a man, said to be a toy-car operator, forcibly kissing a little boy who was driving a battery-operated car. The boy tries to fend off the man but fails to do so. The shocking incident happened in Saudi Arabia.
The original video was taken down by the uploader after it went viral. Although, it was quickly back up as several others re-uploaded the video on YouTube and Facebook, with netizens voicing anger against both the acts of the man kissing the child and the person recording the video instead of interfering.
However, it's crucial to note that the video recording served as evidence for police in Saudi Arabia to arrest the man and file charges of sexual assault against him. We'll come to all that in a bit. The video was also shared on the wall of Malaysia Education Info (And Homeschooling too), where it received a lot of attention.
The incident took place last month, 19 August, in the Al Qasr Mall.
The adult man in the video is a Bangladeshi who was arrested by Saudi Arabia's religious police, the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, members of which were on a routine patrol when they saw him molesting and forcibly kissing the child.
According to 'Sada' daily newspaper, when the Bangladeshi man was arrested he denied doing anything to the boy until the video was shown to him.
"They arrested him and he tried to deny it, but he was faced with the film showing him assaulting the boy," Emirates 24/7 quoted from 'Sada' daily newspaper back in August.
However, a day later, 20 August, Sabq.org, Saudi online newspaper reported that the man in the video who was "allegedly molesting" the boy was actually his uncle, adding that the boy's father used to leave his son under his brother's "care" whenever he was away.
Now it gets ugly: after the man turned out to be the boy's uncle, Yahoo Maktoob News on 8 September reported that the man was cleared from charges of sexually assaulting the boy.
In the meantime, the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice is yet to comment on the developments on the case, with the man still remaining in detention.
An image grab from a new video shows the boy with his father and uncle.
Image via Yahoo Maktoob NewsAs per the video recording, the man, an adult, is seen to have committed an act of sexual offence against the boy who is a minor.
Earlier in January 2014, a disturbing viral video that appeared to show a child being molested in Saudi Arabia prompted online soul-searching in the conservative kingdom. In light of which, Saudi users shared educational anti-abuse graphics such as this:
According to a report in the BBC, the 2014 incident prompted a huge online movement by Saudi social media users to raise awareness.
Response to the video prompted an intense debate on social media, which included Saudi users creating a new hashtag, #GuySexuallyHarassingALittleGirl, to condemn the act and discuss the level of punishment needed. Others used the hashtag to encourage young people to speak out against abuse by sharing educational photos and videos on how to spot and report abuse when it happens.
One of the most shared videos, created by The Egyptian Center for Women's Rights (ECWR), an independent, non-partisan NGO, was a cartoon clip showing scenarios of how parents can educate their kids and how children should deal with harassment. Watch it here:
According to a 2012 survey by Crimes against Children Research Center, 30% of children are abused by family members, and as many as 60% of children are abused by people the family trusts
If the above statistics prove anything is that those who prey on children are not strangers but people we trust and put out faith in. They are our relatives, friends, and sometimes, as in this case, uncles.
In the meantime, take our poll to let us know your views about the man's act and what do you think should happen to him, below: