ABSTRACT
Abuse of children is a social problem now acknowledged in both developed and developing countries. While the developed world detected this in the 1960s, developing countries only began to realize it in the 1980s. Nigeria is battling with the issue of definitions a decade after its attention was drawn to the problem of child abuse and neglect within society. The African Network for the Prevention and Protection Against Child Abuse and Neglect appears to have a wider conception of child abuse: The intentional, unintentional or well-intentioned acts which endanger the physical, health, emotional, moral and the educational welfare of the child. Sexual abuse has been defined as 'any act of a sexual nature upon or with a child'. Such abuses are either incestuous or are termed defilement, rape or indecent assault. Under Nigerian customary law, parents and guardians have the unconditional right to apply physical chastisement for the upbringing of their children.
