Rome, nov 11. (askanews) –

The eyes of children in the photo shoots of Olivero Toscani, violent adults in the paintings of Ali Hassoun: the art exhibition “Talking Looks” is the main pillar of the event against child abuse organized in Rome by the Institute for Biomedical Research and Innovation of the CNR of Catania. The primary prevention of child abuse, it was explained during the presentation in the Sala del Cenacolo of the Chamber of Deputies, is achieved primarily through information and culture.

This is what Paolo Siani, Vice-President of the bicameral Commission for Childhood and Adolescence, said about the dynamics of the phenomenon: “Child maltreatment is certainly a submerged phenomenon, which has certainly increased during the lockdown, and it is an unbearable phenomenon that, among other things, is expensive. There is a recent research showing that Italy spends 13 billion a year in direct and indirect costs to treat abused boys and girls. This exhibition, made in this place, in Rome, at the Chamber of Deputies, wants to sensitize the government and parliament to a submerged issue, that we do not know and that politics a bit ‘ignores, “said Siani.

Enrico Parano, head of the Irib, offered a worrying point of view of the scientific research on the phenomenon: “We specifically study genetic abnormalities, which are called epigenetic, because they occur on the DNA of minors who suffer maltreatment and abuse. It has been demonstrated that violence and abuse paradoxically leave traces, genetic signatures, on the DNA of the child with devastating consequences for his neurological development, for his biological, physical and behavioral development”.

For this reason, the need to act from the earliest sign, and that is why the art exhibition is associated with the other element, the “Didactic and Propaedeutic Paths”, lessons that experts from various disciplines will perform for students of middle and high schools, to prepare children to recognize the signs of abuse and violence, on themselves and their fellow students. “For example – explained Parano – the representative of the postal police will explain how to defend themselves from an online solicitation, the pediatrician will explain what are the physical signs, the orthopedist the traumatological signs and so on because it is well established that our kids should finally be able to know and defend themselves.” In a few words, the weapons of culture and knowledge against the overwhelming violence.